Our recent paper shows that in birds, anti-predator responses toward previously unfamiliar sounds (samples of punk rock songs) can be socially transmitted among territorial individuals, with naïve birds learning through the association of unfamiliar sounds and alarm calling reactions of conspecific neighbors. Moreover, once learned soon after nestlings hatching, the anti-predator response of parents can be retained until the end of nestlings rearing period. Thus, at the beginning of a pivotal phase of a breeding cycle, birds can acquire a vital life skill—recognition of novel risk cues—from conspecific neighbors, which they can incorporate into their own repertoire of anti-predator behaviors and use later when taking care of own nestlings. Jointly, these results demonstrate social learning as one of the mechanisms explaining the widespread abilities of animals to assess predation risk via acoustic signals. Read the full story here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01858-6
Animal Cognition: Wood Warblers, auditory risk recognition, and rock ‘n’ roll
