Grouse have signature drumming styles

KEITH MOON and Ringo Starr had their own individual drumming styles, and if you listen closely enough you will find this guy (pictured) does too. Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds.

Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked to see if non-vocal sounds are similarly unique, says Andrew Iwaniuk of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.

Iwaniuk studies male ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), which drum by beating their wings on logs. Each bout lasts about 10 seconds and contains up to 50 pulses. Iwaniuk and his team recorded 449 drumming displays from 23 males and found that the number of pulses in each bout and the rate at which they were produced were unique to each individual (Ethology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.02011.x).

Females might rely on the drumming to recognise particular males during the mating season, says Iwaniuk. In theory there are benefits to being recognisable, agrees Elizabeth Tibbetts of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Another example would be maintaining your place in the pecking order.

But both researchers say it is not yet clear whether the grouse do make use of their distinctive calls or if they are simply an evolutionary accident.

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