Marcelo Araya-Salas

Marcelo Araya-Salas

Research Associate

Neuroscience Research Center

University of Costa Rica

I am interested in understanding how behavior has evolved and which factors have influenced it, spanning both cultural and evolutionary timescales. I am also interested in the possible macro-evolutionary consequences of these processes. I tackle these questions by studying the communication systems of (mostly neotropical) taxa, making use of ‘single species’ behavioral studies, comparative phylogenetic methods and cutting-edge data analyses.

I also enjoy developing my own computational tools for customizing data analysis. I’m deeply involved in the development of software packages for the analysis of behavioral data. I have created the R package warbleR that provides functions to streamline high-throughput acoustic analysis of animal sounds. I also made available two R packages, Rraven and NatureSounds, that aim to simplify the use of R for bioacoustic research. More recently I released the R packages baRulho, to quantify acoustic signal transmission and degradation, and ohun, to optimize automatic detection. New functions as well as other more elaborated analyses are detailed in my blog coded bioacoustics.

Publications

(2024). Persistent vocal learning in an aging open-ended learner reflected in neural FoxP2 expression. BMC Neuroscience.

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(2024). Vocal interactions of breeding partners predict duration of incubation bout in an Artic seabird. Journal of Ornithology.

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(2024). Calling to the collective: contact calling rates within groups of disc-winged bats do not vary by kinship or association. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

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(2023). baRulho: an R package to quantify degradation in animal acoustic signals. BioRxiv.

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(2023). A cultural atlas of vocal variation, yellow-naped amazons exhibit contact call dialects throughout their Mesoamerican range. Frontiers in Bird Science.

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(2023). ohun: An R package for diagnosing and optimizing automatic sound event detection. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

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(2023). Evidence for maintenance of key components of vocal learning in ageing budgerigars despite diminished affiliative social interaction. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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(2023). Foraging, fear and behavioral variation in a traplining hummingbird. Animals.

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(2023). Flexible use of visual and acoustic cues during roost finding in Spix’s disc-winged bat (Thyroptera tricolor). Behavioral Ecology.

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(2022). The evolution of sexually dimorphic traits in ecological gradients: an interplay between natural and sexual selection in hummingbirds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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(2022). Landing manoeuvres predict roost-site preferences in bats. Journal of Experimental Biology.

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(2022). Variación de la estructura del canto del Gorrión de Collar Rufo (Zonotrichia capensis) a lo largo de un gradiente urbano en el suroeste del Perú. Ornitología Neotropical.

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(2021). A machine learning approach for classifying and quantifying acoustic diversity. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

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(2021). Comparative bioacoustics: a roadmap for quantifying and comparing animal sounds across diverse taxa. Biological Reviews.

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(2021). Sex role similarity and sexual selection predict male and female song elaboration and dimorphism in fairy-wrens. Ecology and Evolution.

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(2020). Breeding season length predicts duet coordination and consistency in Neotropical wrens (Troglodytidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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(2020). Anthropogenic noise affects female, not male house wren response to change in signaling network. Ethology.

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(2020). Ontogeny of an interactive call-and-response system in Spix’s disc-winged bats. Animal Behaviour.

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(2019). Individual signatures outweigh social group identity in contact calls of a communally nesting parrot. Behavioral Ecology.

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(2019). Assessing the effect of sound file compression and background noise on measures of acoustic signal structure. Bioacoustics.

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(2019). Parental coordination of chick provisioning in a planktivorous Arctic seabird under divergent conditions on foraging grounds. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

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(2019). Perspectives on the Study of Field Hummingbird Cognition in the Neotropics. in Behavioral Ecology of Neotropical Birds.

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(2019). Social group signatures in hummingbird displays provide evidence of co-occurrence of vocal and visual learning. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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(2018). Early development of vocal interaction rules in a duetting songbird. Royal Society Open Science.

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(2018). Seabird parents provision their chick in a coordinated manner. PLOS ONE.

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(2018). Spatial memory is as important as weapon and body size for territorial ownership in a lekking hummingbird. Scientific Reports.

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(2017). To overlap or not to overlap: context-dependent coordinated singing in lekking long-billed hermits. Animal Behaviour.

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(2017). warbleR: An r package to streamline analysis of animal acoustic signals. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

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(2016). Neotropical wrens learn new duet rules as adults. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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(2015). Bills as daggers? A test for sexually dimorphic weapons in a lekking hummingbird. Behavioral Ecology.

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(2015). Does vocal learning accelerate acoustic diversification? Evolution of contact calls in Neotropical parrots. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

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(2015). How acoustic signals scale with individual body size: common trends across diverse taxa. Behavioral Ecology.

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(2015). An RFID based smart feeder for hummingbirds. Sensors.

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(2015). Does environmental heterogeneity promote cognitive abilities?. Integrative and Comparative Biology.

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(2013). Open-ended song learning in a hummingbird. Biology Letters.

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(2012). Is birdsong music?. Significance.

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Software packages

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Mentees

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Jorge Elizondo-Calvo

Jorge Elizondo-Calvo

I’m a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Biology at the University of Costa Rica. My academic journey has been focused on the application of computational tools to deepen our understanding of the ecological roles played by diverse animals, including amphibians, birds, and mammals.

Fabiola Chirino

Fabiola Chirino

I am a biologist with experience in ecology and bioacoustics of frogs and acoustic recognition software programming. I have more than five years of experience in field work focused on the observation of frog and mammal species in their habitat.

Marcos Quiroz-Oliva

Marcos Quiroz-Oliva

I’m a Mexican student with a self-motivated and deeply involved in ecology, evolution, and behavior studies utilizing bioacoustic signals, and with a love for open-source analysis languages and tools. In my master’s degree in the University of Costa Rica with the tutorship of Marcelo, we are aiming to identify the mechanisms shaping acoustic structure in the cultural evolution of songs in the lekking Long-billed Hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis longirostris) using 50 years of acoustic data.

Jimena Viquez

Jimena Viquez

I am currently in my forth-year as an undergraduate biology student at the University of Costa Rica. My main focus is in wildlife management, ecology, ecosystem conservation, animal behavior and climate change.