Effects of free-ranging,semi-captive and captive management on the acoustics of male rutting calls in Siberian wapiti <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus elaphus sibiricus</Emphasis>

In male European red deer Cervus elaphus, rutting calls that are responsible for male reproductive success are higher in fundamental frequency in captivity than in the wild. This study compares the acoustics of stag rutting calls among wild-living, semi-captive and captive stags within an Asian subspecies of C. elaphus, the Siberian wapiti Cervus elaphus sibiricus. Male Siberian wapiti rutting calls (bugles) were collected using automated recording systems in three populations (wild-living, semi-captive and captive), all originated from the Altai/Khakasian region of Central Siberia (Russia). Selected 435 bugles (145 per population) were analysed spectrographically for 14 variables of the bugle high (>1 kHz) fundamental frequency (g0) and scored for shape of g0 contour: trapeze, descending or saddle. Among bugles, 74.3% had the trapeze contour, 23.7% had the descending contour and 2.1% had the saddle contour. The additional low (<0.2 kHz) fundamental frequency (f0) was found in 76.1% of bugles, whereas deterministic chaos was found in 16.8% of bugles. Bugles of captive stags were shortest and highest in frequency. The captive management selectively affected only bugles with the trapeze contour, whereas bugles with descending contour remained unaffected by variations of deer holding regime. Stag rutting bugles are subspecies-specific and may therefore serve as acoustic indicator of subspecies for the Siberian wapiti among other Asian and American subspecies of wapiti.