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SUMMARY:Alarm calls and interspecific eavesdropping - Robert Magrath (Aust
 ralian National University)
DTSTART:20181211T130000Z
DTEND:20181211T140000Z
UID:TALK112930@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Rahia Mashoodh
DESCRIPTION:Many birds and mammals gain useful information about predators
  by eavesdropping on the alarm calls of other species. This raises the puz
 zle of how individuals recognize these calls\, because alarm calls vary wi
 dely in acoustic structure among species. Recognition might be possible be
 cause alarm calls of different species share key acoustic properties\, or 
 because individuals learn to recognize other species’ calls. I consider 
 these possibilities in our research on Australian birds\, which reveals th
 at while call structure can affect response\, learning is critical in enab
 ling individuals to tailor responses to the local community and to explain
  taxonomically widespread eavesdropping. Our work includes geographic comp
 arisons and learning experiments carried out on wild birds. We show overal
 l that individuals gain valuable information about danger from heterospeci
 fics\, and that learning–including social learning–helps individuals j
 oin the ecological “information web”.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology \, Downing Street
 \, CB2 3EJ
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