Flower et al., 2014 (alarm mimicry drongos)

Question 1

Victims of deception … against and ultimately … deceptive signals when they are produced too ….

… variation of signals could allow evasion of such constraints.

Answer 1

discriminate ,ignore, frequently

Flexible

Question 2

This study looks at …-… …, who use false … … to scare away other species from food, which they then have monopoly over.

Answer 2

fork-tailed drongos, alarm calls

Question 3

The study shows that drongos mimic the alarm calls of … ….

Answer 3

targeted species

Question 4

Further, target species reduce their response to false alarms calls when they are …. However, the fear response is maintained when the call is …, and drongos exploit this by changing their clam-call type when making repeated thefts of a particular species.

Answer 4

repeated, varied

Question 5

Therefore, drongos are able to avoid the …-… constraints that often generally limit deception payoffs, through flexible variation of their alarm calls

Answer 5

frequency-dependent

Question 6

Deception persists if it remains beneficial for individuals to respond to a signal … ….

Deceptive signal declines as signal … increases

Answer 6

on average

frequency

Question 7

Drongos do … produce true alarm calls when they observe approaching predators

Answer 7

honestly

• target species eavesdrop on these calls, as well as alarm calls of other species and conspecifics, and flee to cover in response (allows lower vigilance and increased foraging returns)

Question 8

Research conducted in the … …

Answer 8

Kalahari desert (southern Africa)

Question 9

Food theft accounts for … of drongo biomass intake

Answer 9

23%

Question 10

Individual drongo repertoires range from … to … different calls

+ a total of … different alarm calls types have been recorded in false alarms

… of these are drongo-specific, the rest are mimics of other species’ alarm calls

Answer 10

9, 32

51

6

Question 11

Drongos mimicked a target species’ alarm calls more oftenn in food-theft attempts on them than…

Answer 11

in attempts on other target species

they direct the alarm calls towards specific species

Question 12

Pied babblers were significantly slower to resume foraging in response to … alarm calls than …-… alarm calls

Answer 12

mimicked, drongo-specific

so alarm mimicry increased target deception

Question 13

There was no difference between the babblers response to their own mimicked alarms relative to those of ….

Answer 13

starlings

starlings may be reliable alarm callers

Question 14

Babblers decreased their response time when the same alarm call was played … times in succession but maintained their response when the … alarm was changed

Answer 14

three, third

so drongos could benefit by flexibly varying their call type to maintain target deception

Question 15

Observing drongo food-theft attempt showed that drongos changed their alarm call type on ~… of occasions

They were particularly likely to change the type of deceptive alarm call when…

Answer 15

74%

their previous food-theft attempt failed (which did lead to more successful theft)

Question 16

Flexible variation maintained deception because target habituation to one alarm signal did not result in…

Answer 16

habituation to other signals