Animal Communication Flashcards
Why do animals make warnings?
Evans and Marler = chickens make diff calls to warn others of predators
BUT
is this due to fear rather than care for the others? (Kean et al = capuchins more likely to make false warnings also had higher anxiety levels
who gives alarm calls
Sherman = only female squirrels gave out a warning cry on seeing a predator - they are more surrounded by their relatives than males as men disperse to other areas to increase genetic variation in colonies
consequence of calls
Sherman = more likely to be killed if they die
different vocal responses to danger
loud alarm barks/screams
quiet alert ‘hoos’ ie for vipers where quiet avoidance
Crockford, Wittig, Mundry and Zuberbuhler
2012
Naturalistic experiment with wild chimpanzees
stuffed viper placed in pathway in Budongo Forest of Uganda
Chimpanzees that saw snake earlier = fully knowledgeable receiver
Chimpanzees that heard call earlier = partially knowledgeable receiver
Chimpanzees that didn’t hear call or see snake = ignorant receiver
Chimpanzee that saw snake and called out = detectors
Detectors gave more calls to ignorant receivers, perceived risk to detector didn’t impact if the call was made
chimps only called when they went back for a second look
Dissociation between emotional reaction and vocalisation
Meaning = alarm calls are moderated by how it benefits receiver
Clutton-Brook et al
1979
best way to defend territory is showing your strength but actually fighting can cause damage so need signal to show strength
Male Red Deer roar to ward off competitors - strongest animal = longest and loudest roar
Wilkinson and Dodson
1997
flies compare length of eye talks or antlers to gain territory
alcicornis flies’ antler width was correlated with size of body so was good indicator of strength
Animal accents
White-crowned sparrows from Marin, Berkley and Sunset Beach California have diff accents
Baptista and Petrinovich 1986 = birds exposed to other male birds learn other song -
Deception
ground-nesting birds such as killdeer plover feign injury dragging one wing along ground to lure predators away from their young
Photuris females fireflies imitate female signals of Photunis fireflies to attract males they then eat
Mitchell and Anderson = capuchin monkeys point, withhold info and deceive
Churchill, Coluche and Boy monkeys shown bait put under bowl twice - in cooperative condition, monkey praised if they select one with bait or they express regret and leave if not - in competitive condition, competitor wears diff clothes and dresses distinctively so it’s salient to monkey. if monkey chooses bowl with bait, competitor pretends to eat bait and shout ‘mine, mine, mine!’ and if not, competitor leaves and another trainer approaches to praise monkey and give bait
in last 6 cooperative trials, capuchins pointed to bowl with food and in last 6 competitive trials, Boy pointed to food, Churchill withheld pointing and Clouche pointed to no-food bowl demonstrating deception - after session 31 the times he pointed at food box decreased
But was it deception or just discrimination learning? ie if green light (similar monkey) show perform behaviour AND if red light (competition monkey) shows perform another behaviour (just learning appropriate behaviour in that circumstance
Levels of deception
first = appearance-related ie the owl butterfly
second = stimulus-response process (plover feigning broken wing to distract predator)
third = result of learned association (this was Coluche)
fourth = intentionally try create false belief in another’s mind ie Mitchell and Anderson
Canteloup, Poitrasson, Anderson, Poulin and Meunier
2017
Two macaques (1 dominant and 1 subordinate) released into arena with 1 banana - if banana was hidden where only subordinate could see, dominant still took banana off them - subordinate tricked dominant into searching for banana in wrong place
Deceptive behaviours:
1. concealment by inhibiting interest in object (CIO) = avoid looking at banana
2. distraction by leading (DL) = subordinate moved away from food and dominant followed
Results:
1. macaques appears to use deceptive behaviours to keep food - 4th level deception? or is subordinate just trying to avoid conflict by not approaching competitor (level 3?)
