APS126 Papers and Practicals Flashcards
Japanese tits (Parus minor) produce specific alarm calls when…
and only when encountering a predatory snake
Simply hearing the snake alarm call causes…
tits to become more visually perceptive to objects resembling snakes
During playback of a snake-specific alarm call, tits…
approach a wooden stick being moved in a snake-like fashion, but do not respond to the same stick when hearing other call types or if the stick’s movement is dissimilar to that of a snake
Thus, before detecting a real snake, tits…
retrieve its visual image from snake-specific alarm calls and use this to search out snakes
This tit study provides evidence for..
a call-evoked visual search image in a nonhuman animal
The japanese tit produces acoustically…
distinct alarm calls in response to different predators
When incubating eggs in the nest, adult tits respond to snake-specific alarm calls by…
immediately escaping out of the nest cavity, allowing them to evade attacks from snakes
- when outside of the nest cavity they look down at the ground nearby their nest tree, suggesting an adaptive behaviour to locate approaching snakes
What was used to represent the snake?
Short stick (18cm) cut from dead branch manipulated on a string from a distance, pulled along a tree trunk (no other animals do this apart from snakes in this area) - swinging from a low shrub used as non-snake like movement - approach much less common
The crow study was looking at what..
New Caledonian crows do with their tools between successive prey extractions, and whether they express tool “safekeeping” behaviour more often when the costs or likelihood of tool loss are high.
Birds generally took care of their tools…
- 84% of 176 prey extractions (74% trapping underfoot, 26% storing in holes)
- also observed these behaviours in the wild
Subjects kept tools safe significantly more often when…
foraging at height
Subjects stored tools significantly more in holes when…
extracting more demanding prey (under these conditions, foot-trapping proved challenging)
In arboreal environments, safekeeping can prevent … … …, removing a potentially important constraint on the … of habitual and complex … …
costly tool losses,
evolution,
tool behaviour
How can tools incur significant costs?
Time and energy spent searching for, manufacturing and transporting tools
NC crows are forced by their anatomy to…
put down foraging tools in order to process and eat extracted prey items
- inevitably increases risk of accidental tool loss
