Author Description

Scientific Study from the year 2019 in the subject Biology - Behaviour, grade: -, language: English, abstract: The observation that Cattle which are spread over a wider area gather around a Saxophone player but totally ignore Crane calls gave the impetus for a detailed investigation of the "timbre" of both sounds as a possible explanation for the observed effect. Frequency- and Formant-spectra of four different sounds have been analysed: Cattle-calls (cowing), Kulning (an ancient herding call of Swedish women), Crane-calls and Saxophone play (by a professional player). Kulning-calls and the Saxophone-sound exhibit Formant-spectra with several Formant-bands of high intensity in the range of 1.000-9.000Hz which are nearly completely missing in Formant-spectra of Crane calls. Therefore, it is concluded that this richness of sound (=timbre) of Saxophone and Kulning generate the "attraction" of these sounds for Cattle whereas Crane-calls which miss this Formant-signals nearly completely cannot gain the interest of Cattle.