On the acoustic signaling of turkeys

Abstract

One of the indicators of behavioral activity in response to the impact of environmental factors is acoustic signaling as an element of sound communication of birds. The purpose of the research work was to study acoustic signaling of turkeys of Highbrid Converter cross, grown in conditions of poultry breeding enterprise of Tyumen region. The object of research were turkeys of different groups of different age (1, 12, 41, 56, 69 days) and sex. Loudness of sounds issued by the bird was measured by a noise meter, with fixation of maximum, minimum and average values of sound loudness. Audiometry was carried out in the morning and evening. 76 audiograms were recorded. In the course of background research it was noticed that turkeys constantly make sounds characteristic for the species, communicating among themselves birds do not stop shouting at night, and the noisiest are males. It was found that the average maximum values of loudness level of signals of birds in groups not divided by sex, in 41-day-old birds (81.3 dB) in the evening and in day-old chicks (71.6 dB) in the morning. In 41-day-old birds, the loudness level of acoustic signaling increases (by 5.2 dB) toward evening, and in dayold birds, loudness is 5.1 dB lower in the evening than in the morning. The amplitude of loudness increase has a sharp character. At the same time, the signal volume of day-old chicks in the morning has maximum values (82.0 dB), which are also found in the groups of older chicks (69 days). However, in the evening, the maximum values of day-old chicks' buzzer loudness decrease by 11.5 dB. In groups of chicks separated by sex at 56 days of age, the acoustic signals of males are louder (by 1.2 dB), both in the morning and in the evening (by 1.3 dB). It was also found that the loudness level in both the group of males (by 3.8 dB) and females (by 3.7 dB) increased towards evening. In the group of 69 day-old turkeys, female signals were 1 dB louder than male signals in the evening. Maximum loudness values were recorded in the male group (85.5 dB, 86.4 dB, 87.4 dB).