Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) produce an alarm call when a predator appears. Gunnison's prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) produce calls that vary in spectral structure according to predator type and specific characteristics unique to the individual predator, such as color and shape. These calls vary depending on geographic location and have been characterized as dialects. Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) also encode information about terrestrial predators in their alarm calls. However, nothing is known about whether there are dialects in these alarm calls, and if so, why these dialects might have arisen. We studied the alarm calls and habitat characteristics of eight different black-tailed prairie dog colonies within the Southwestern USA: Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, NM, Vermejo Park Ranch, NM, Kiowa National Grasslands, NM, Rita Blanca National Grasslands, TX, and Comanche National Grasslands, CO. An analysis of time and frequency changes in alarm calls showed that colony sites that were located within 30 km each other did not have significant differences in alarm call structure, but sites that were more distant were significantly different from the other sites, consistent with the existence of dialects as well as with genetic models of isolation by distance. The acoustic structure of the alarm calls was not explained by differences in habitat characteristics at each site. A comparison of Squared Euclidian Distances (D2) of alarm calls versus linear distances between sites showed a significant positive correlation, implying that alarm call dialect differences increase the farther one site is from another. This relationship is consistent with a cultural diffusion model of dialects, and is similar to that observed in human dialects.

中文翻译：

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黑尾土拨鼠（Cynomys ludovicianus）报警电话中的方言：文化扩散的案例？

草原土拨鼠（Cynomys spp.）在捕食者出现时发出警报。Gunnison 的草原土拨鼠 (Cynomys gunnisoni) 根据捕食者类型和个体捕食者独有的特定特征（例如颜色和形状）发出光谱结构不同的叫声。这些呼叫因地理位置而异，并已被定性为方言。黑尾草原土拨鼠（Cynomys ludovicianus）也在它们的警报声中编码有关陆地捕食者的信息。但是，对于这些报警电话中是否存在方言，以及如果有，为什么会出现这些方言，尚不得而知。我们研究了美国西南部八个不同的黑尾草原土拨鼠群的警报和栖息地特征：麦克斯韦国家野生动物保护区，新墨西哥州，维尔梅霍公园牧场，新墨西哥州，基奥瓦国家草原，新墨西哥州，Rita Blanca National Grasslands, TX 和 Comanche National Grasslands, CO。 对警报呼叫时间和频率变化的分析表明，彼此相距 30 公里以内的殖民地站点在警报呼叫结构上没有显着差异，但在警报呼叫结构上存在显着差异。更远的地方与其他地点有显着不同，这与方言的存在以及距离隔离的遗传模型一致。报警电话的声学结构不能用每个地点的栖息地特征差异来解释。警报呼叫的平方欧几里得距离 (D2) 与站点之间的线性距离的比较显示出显着的正相关，这意味着警报呼叫方言差异随着一个站点与另一个站点的距离而增加。