Abstract:
Alarm signals have evolved to communicate pertinent threats to conspecifics, but heterospecifics may also use alarm calls to obtain social information. In birds, mixed-species flocks are often structured around focal sentinel species, which produce reliable alarm calls that inform eavesdropping heterospecifics about predation risk. Prior research has shown that Neotropical species innately recognize the alarm calls of a Nearctic sentinel species, but it remains unclear how generalizable or consistent such innate signal recognition of alarm-calling species is. We tested for the responses to the alarm calls of a Neotropical sentinel forest bird species, the dusky-throated antshrike (Thamnomanes ardesiacus), by naive resident temperate forest birds across three continents during the winter season. At all three sites, we found that approaches to the Neotropical antshrike alarm calls were similarly frequent to the alarm calls of a local parid sentinel species (positive control), while approaches to the antshrike\'s songs and to non-threatening columbid calls (negative controls) occurred significantly less often. Although we only tested one sentinel species, our findings indicate that temperate forest birds can recognize and adaptively respond globally to a foreign and unfamiliar tropical alarm call, and suggest that some avian alarm calls transcend phylogenetic histories and individual ecological experiences.
摘要:
报警信号已经演变为将相关威胁传达给特定物种,但是异特异性也可能使用警报调用来获取社会信息。在鸟类中,混合物种群通常围绕着局灶性前哨物种,它产生可靠的警报呼叫,告知窃听关于捕食风险的异特异性。先前的研究表明,新热带物种天生就能识别近地哨兵物种的警报,但目前尚不清楚报警物种的这种先天信号识别的普遍性或一致性。我们测试了对新热带哨兵森林鸟类警报的响应,昏暗的喉咙安伯雷克(Thamnomanesardesiacus),在冬季,天真的居住在三大洲的温带森林鸟类。在所有三个地点,我们发现,新热带安伯雷克警报呼叫的方法与当地的parid哨兵物种(阳性对照)的警报呼叫相似,而对安特伯里克的歌曲和非威胁性的哥伦布呼叫(阴性对照)的方法发生的频率明显较低。虽然我们只测试了一个前哨物种,我们的研究结果表明,温带森林鸟类可以识别并适应性地在全球范围内响应外国和陌生的热带警报呼叫,并建议一些鸟类警报呼叫超越系统发育历史和个人生态经验。