Assessment of predation risk through referential communication in incubating birds.
Sci Rep
; 5: 10239, 2015 May 18.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25985093
ABSTRACT
Parents of many bird species produce alarm calls when they approach and deter a nest predator in order to defend their offspring. Alarm calls have been shown to warn nestlings about predatory threats, but parents also face a similar risk of predation when incubating eggs in their nests. Here, I show that incubating female Japanese great tits, Parus minor, assess predation risk by conspecific alarm calls given outside the nest cavity. Tits produce acoustically discrete alarm calls for different nest predators "jar" calls for snakes and "chicka" calls for other predators such as crows and martens. Playback experiments revealed that incubating females responded to "jar" calls by leaving their nest, whereas they responded to "chicka" calls by looking out of the nest entrance. Since snakes invade the nest cavity, escaping from the nest helps females avoid snake predation. In contrast, "chicka" calls are used for a variety of predator types, and therefore, looking out of the nest entrance helps females gather information about the type and location of approaching predators. These results show that incubating females derive information about predator type from different types of alarm calls, providing a novel example of functionally referential communication.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Comportamento Predatório
/
Aves
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Comunicação Animal
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sci Rep
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article