Welcome!

Our interests are in the field of studying the communicative role of acoustic variation in mammals and birds. Distinctive to speech communication of humans, that is based on meanings of words, the vocal communication of animals is based primarily of the structural variation of their calls. Examination of similarities and differences in organization principles of vocal communication between humans and animals can highlight the evolutionary origin of speech and probable common underlying mechanisms for encoding the emotional state in humans and nonhuman mammals. Our projects envelope a wide spectrum of animal species and are focused both on fundamental and applied points.

As a main methodical approach, we apply a spectrographic analysis of the acoustic stricture of calls, recorded from individually identified animals, for prolonged time periods. For this purpose, we use modern professional semi-automatic computer software for sound analysis. For evoking vocal responses and confirming a possibility of individual and sex recognition by calls, we apply playbacks. For registration the movemental behaviour of animals, we make synchronized audio and video recording and then confront calls and movements using frame-by frame analysis. For some species, we study vocal anatomy, using computer tomography, dissections and histology from naturally died specimens, from which vocalizations have been recorded during their lives. Here, you will find complete information about the group members, scientists, PhD and undergraduate students, making their research in frames of our numerous projects on acoustics of terrestrial vertebrates, and about results of our work.