The cessation of contact calls does not provoke or modulate alarm behaviour in a social passerine
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Abstract
Vocalizations that signal predation risk such as alarm calls provide crucial information for the survival of group-living individuals. However, alarm calling may attract the predator’s attention and, to avoid this cost, animals can opt for alternative strategies to indicate danger, such as ‘adaptive silence’, which is the cessation of vocalizations. We investigate here whether abrupt contact call cessation would provoke alarm responses, or would reinforce the signal given by an alarm call. In an aviary setting, we conducted playback experiments with a group-living passerine, the Swinhoe’s white-eye, Zosterops simplex. We found that birds did not respond to a sudden call cessation, nor did they have a stronger response to alarm calls followed by silence than to alarm calls followed by contact calls. Confirming previous work investigating contact call rate, it appears that in this species contact calls encode information about social factors but not environmental conditions.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 796 | 133 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 44 | 6 | 0 |
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The cessation of contact calls does not provoke or modulate alarm behaviour in a social passerine
In: BehaviourSearch for other papers by Estelle Meaux in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Chao He in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Luying Qin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Eben Goodale in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Vocalizations that signal predation risk such as alarm calls provide crucial information for the survival of group-living individuals. However, alarm calling may attract the predator’s attention and, to avoid this cost, animals can opt for alternative strategies to indicate danger, such as ‘adaptive silence’, which is the cessation of vocalizations. We investigate here whether abrupt contact call cessation would provoke alarm responses, or would reinforce the signal given by an alarm call. In an aviary setting, we conducted playback experiments with a group-living passerine, the Swinhoe’s white-eye, Zosterops simplex. We found that birds did not respond to a sudden call cessation, nor did they have a stronger response to alarm calls followed by silence than to alarm calls followed by contact calls. Confirming previous work investigating contact call rate, it appears that in this species contact calls encode information about social factors but not environmental conditions.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 796 | 133 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 44 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 65 | 10 | 0 |
