AbstractFour calls of the genusTragopanwere described and acoustically analysed. Alarm and wing whir calls were very similar in sound and structure in all five species. By contrast, a comparison of 11 physical parameters of advertisement and clicking calls indicated that species separated into three groups: western and Cabot's each separated into their own group, whereas Blyth's, Temminck's and satyr formed another group. It was hypothesized that the tragopan prototype population had their origin in the eastern Himalayas. Thus, the centrally distributed species of tragopans (satyr, Blyth's and Temminck's) retained characteristics of the ancestral population, whereas the peripheral species (western and Cabot's) underwent vocal modifications. Courtship vocalizations, which are under sexual selection pressure, probably serve as species‐isolating mechanisms in sympatric specie
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