Sains Malaysiana 48(10)(2019): 2061–2069

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2019-4810-01

 

Vocal Response of Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) to Urban Environmental Factors in Peninsular Malaysia

(Respons Vokal Murai Kampung (Copsychus saularis) kepada Faktor Persekitaran Bandar di Semenanjung Malaysia)

SHAFINAZ HANAFI¹, CHONG LEONG PUAN^1,2,3*, SREETHERAN MARUTHAVEERAN⁴ & KOK LOONG YEONG^5,6

¹Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

²Institute of Tropica Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

³Biodiversity Unit, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

⁴Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

⁵Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation (LC3M), University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom

 

⁶South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, 91112, Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia

 

Received: 6 December 2018/Accepted: 29 July 2019

ABSTRACT

Anthropogenic noise and changes in environmental gradients resulted from urbanisation have been shown to alter vocalisation of urban birds in previous studies. This study examined the vocalisation of the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis; locally known as Murai Kampung) in relation to anthropogenic noise and environmental factors in the urban, suburban and rural areas in Peninsular Malaysia. We measured four ambient factors (i.e. ambient noise, temperature, relative humidity and light intensity) and two landscape factors (i.e. distance to building and distance to major roads) between January and June 2017 from six locations. A total of 147 recordings comprising territorial songs of the bird were obtained and transcribed into spectrograms. Six parameters, namely low frequency, high frequency, frequency ranges, length of strophe, number of elements per strophe, and time interval between strophes were derived from spectrograms for each recording. In urban areas, low frequency of the songs was found to have increased significantly as compared to those recorded in suburban and rural areas. The difference in noise, temperature and relative humidity in urban and suburban environment had led to both single and interaction effects towards the Oriental Magpie Robin’s song parameters, i.e. low frequency, length of strophe, time interval between strophes and number of elements per strophe. The results evidenced the ability of the Oriental Magpie Robin in regulating and altering their song structure according to its surrounding environment. This implies its vocal plasticity which is important in ensuring the efficiency in transmission of songs and is likely to explain why the bird is less susceptible to urbanisation.

 

Keywords: Ambient and landscape factors; bird species; frequency; urbanisation; vocalization

 

ABSTRAK

Kajian terdahulu telah menunjukkan bahawa bunyi antropogenik dan perubahan faktor persekitaran yang berpunca daripada pembandaran telah mengubah penyuaraan burung bandar. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti perkaitan antara penyuaraan Murai kampung (Copyschus saularis) dan bunyi antropogenik serta faktor persekitaran di kawasan bandar, pinggir bandar dan luar bandar di Semenanjung Malaysia. Kami mengukur empat faktor persekitaran (iaitu bunyi persekitaran, suhu, kelembapan relatif dan keamatan cahaya) dan faktor landskap (iaitu jarak ke bangunan dan jarak ke jalan utama) antara bulan Januari dan Jun 2017 di enam lokasi terpilih. Sejumlah 147 rakaman yang mengandungi nyanyian wilayah burung tersebut telah diperoleh dan ditukarkan kepada spektogram. Enam parameter iaitu frekuensi rendah, frekuensi tinggi, julat frekuensi, panjang strof, bilangan unsur per strof dan selang masa antara strof telah dihasilkan daripada spektrogram untuk setiap rakaman. Di bandar, adalah didapati bahawa frekuensi rendah telah meningkat secara ketara berbanding dengan di kawasan pinggir bandar dan luar bandar. Perbezaan bunyi antropogenik, suhu dan kelembapan relatif di bandar dan pinggir bandar telah menyebabkan kesan tunggal dan kesan interaksi terhadap parameter nyanyian burung Murai, iaitu frekuensi rendah, panjang strof, selang masa antara strof dan bilangan unsur dalam setiap strof. Hasil kajian ini telah membuktikan keupayaan Murai kampung untuk mengawal serta mengubah struktur nyanyiannya berdasarkan kepada keadaan persekitaran. Ini juga menunjukkan keplastikan vokal burung tersebut adalah penting untuk menjamin keberkesanan nyanyian dan ini juga menjelaskan mengapa nyanyian burung Murai kampung adalah kurang dipengaruhi oleh keadaan perbandaran.

 

Kata kunci: Faktor ambien dan landskap; kekerapan; penyuaraan; perbandaran; spesies burung

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*Corresponding author; email: chongleong@upm.edu.my