Unlearned adaptive responses to heterospecific referential alarm calls in two bird species from separate evolutionary lineages

The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius , who o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-11, Vol.13 (1), p.20287-20287, Article 20287
Main Authors: Ha, Jungmoon, Lee, Keesan, Yang, Eunjeong, Kim, Woojoo, Song, Hokyung, Hwang, Injae, Lee-Cruz, Larisa, Park, Jinseok, Song, Jihyeon, Park, Chan-ryul, Lee, Wooshin, Jablonski, Piotr, Lee, Sang-im
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/856
631/181
Acoustics
Alarm behavior
Animals
Behavior
Biological Evolution
Birds
Environmental Sciences
Evolution
Habitats
Humanities and Social Sciences
Juveniles
Learning
multidisciplinary
Paridae
Passeriformes
Playback
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Snakes
Species
Vocalization, Animal - physiology
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Summary:The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius , who originated from a common ancestor 8 million years ago, we found a considerable degree of between-species overlap in acoustic properties of referential snake-alarm calls. Playback of these calls triggered unlearned adaptive fledging behavior in conspecific and heterospecific naive nestlings, suggesting a between-species overlap in the hypothetical unlearned neural templates involved in nestlings’ reactions to alarm calls in both species. This suggests that similar calls and similar unlearned sensitivity might have been present in the common ancestor of the two species, and possibly in the ancestor of the whole family Paridae that originated 10–15 million years ago in Asian regions rich in snakes.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-47052-5