Learning to listen? Nestling response to heterospecific alarm calls
Many nestling birds go silent in response to parental alarm calls, potentially lowering their risk of being overheard by predators. Parents are not always nearby, however, and so offspring could also benefit if they respond to the alarm calls of other species. Response could be innate, particularly if heterospecific alarm calls are acoustically similar to […]
Eavesdropping on the neighbours: fledglings learn to respond to heterospecific alarm calls
Young birds and mammals suffer from a high risk of predation, and should be under strong selection for early response to cues indicating danger, including the alarm calls of other species. Despite this prediction, there has been little investigation of the development of response by young animals to heterospecific alarm calls, and none on fledgling […]