I agree that this seems mostly like PR hype. There's lots of examples
that people know about cross species use of warning calls.
One example that's pretty well known in my neck of the woods: Scarlet
Tanager "chip-burr" calls (even if played back when no predator is
around) will make Red-eyed Vireos shut up and duck out of sight.
But that work didn't appear in PNAS!
Cheers!
Steve Pelikan
Rich Peet wrote:
>
>
> neat piece but the statement:
> Like human code-breakers intercepting secret messages, red-breasted
> nuthatches have evolved ways to extract hidden information about
> threats from predators from the seemingly indistinguishable alarm
> calls of other species. It is the first time such subtle eavesdropping
> has been observed in nature.
>
> That just isn't right.
>
> For those that have not been doing this themselves and doubt;
> We had a guy here a couple years ago collecting different ground
> squirrel calls for playback comparison to Prairie Dogs. The Prairie
> Dogs have a complete vocabulary that defines the specific threat to
> the group. We never did get a followup on the success of his work
> though. Nuthatches hang with Chickadees all the time. It would be
> more strange if they did not understand themselves as to why they do
> that. I use both of their alarm calls in the field to keep track of
> what is going on.
>
> Off to the field.
> Rich
>
> --- In
> <naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com>, "Aaron Ximm" <>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11409-eavesdropping-nuthatches-act-on-chickadee-warnings.html
>
> <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11409-eavesdropping-nuthatches-act-on-chickadee-warnings.html>
> >
> > --
> >
> > quietamerican.org
> > oneminutevacation.org
> >
> > 83% happy
> > 9% disgusted
> > 6% fearful
> > 2% angry
> >
>
>
>
>
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