- Birds are capable of recognising calls that other species
use to warn each other about predators. And some species can tell one warning
call from another, while ignoring those which do not indicate a danger
to them, scientists said.
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- Biologists at the University of St Andrews found a bird
species which recognises and responds to noises from a potential predator,
as well as reacting to warning calls from other animals under threat from
the same predator.
-
- Hugo Rainey, a doctoral student, spent 18 months in West
Africa studying wild hornbills, with fellow biologist Professor Peter Slater
and primatologist Dr Klaus Zuberbuhler.
-
- The key to the research lay in the interaction between
the hornbill and the Diana monkey, a species which is extremely observant,
and therefore an excellent lookout for predators.
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- Some mammals can distinguish between and respond to the
alarm calls of other mammal and bird species. For example, Campbell's monkeys
in the Ivory Coast can react to different Diana monkey alarm calls and
Vervet monkeys in Kenya can respond to the different alarm calls of Superb
starlings.
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- However, the ability of birds to distinguish between
mammal alarm calls has not previously been investigated.
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- ©2004 Scotsman.com
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- http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=247242004
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