betsy
02-19-2007, 04:46 PM
Yes, this is old news, too. We had a link to a news article about the amount of information carried in Chickadee alarm calls on the previous forum as I recall, but we lost it when the forum was hacked. So, for those who never saw it, here it is again. Included in the article are links to a couple of recordings that illustrate the difference between chickadee alarm calls alerting to the presence of Great Horned and Pygmy Owls.
Chickadees' alarm-calls carry information about size, threat of predator
....it turns out that those alarms are far more subtle and information-packed than scientists previously imagined.
Writing in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers report that chickadees use one of the most sophisticated signaling systems discovered among animals. The calls warn other chickadees not only if a predator is moving rapidly, but also transmit information on the degree of threat posed by stationary predators of different sizes.
Entire article: http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=10732
Chickadees' alarm-calls carry information about size, threat of predator
....it turns out that those alarms are far more subtle and information-packed than scientists previously imagined.
Writing in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers report that chickadees use one of the most sophisticated signaling systems discovered among animals. The calls warn other chickadees not only if a predator is moving rapidly, but also transmit information on the degree of threat posed by stationary predators of different sizes.
Entire article: http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=10732