A short breath extends the mating calls of male tokay geckos
Tokay geckos (Gekko gecko), large and mostly nocturnal geckos native to parts of Asia, are among the few nonbird reptiles that make sounds to attract potential mates, defend their territory and signal distress. Male tokay geckos' calls typically begin with quieter rattles, followed by louder two-part sounds that can sound like "ge-ko" or "to-kay."
In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have uncovered the physiological processes that allow male tokay geckos to extend the duration of their mating calls. Despite their reputation for producing loud vocalizations, geckos take a brief, silent breath between the two parts of their calls, which they use to attract mates or communicate with rivals.
This finding challenges the notion that males are limited to inflexible, short calls. By using deep learning-based pose estimation, the team measured the respiratory dynamics of seven captive male geckos as they spontaneously produced mating sounds. They discovered that geckos produce their calls during expiration, with a silent, brief breath lasting about a tenth of a second separating the two parts of the call.
The second part of the call is extended by adding terminal pulses, a vocalization technique similar to the vocal fry register used by humans. These findings suggest that male tokay geckos exhibit vocal plasticity, changing their calls to longer, louder types in noisy environments. This vocal plasticity may be an honest sign of their respiratory capacity, and the narrow closure of their ear openings during calling could help protect their hearing from the loud sounds they produce.
Further research could explore how female geckos respond to different call lengths or whether wild geckos use similar calling techniques.
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