scholarly journals A review of squirrel alarm-calling behavior: What we know and what we do not know about how predator attributes affect alarm calls

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-191
Author(s):  
Thaddeus R. McRae
Keyword(s):  
Calling Behavior ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Alarm Calling

Selective Forces Affecting the Predator Alarm Calls of Vervet Monkeys

Behaviour ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 76 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 25-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy L. Cheney ◽  
Robert M. Seyfarth
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Observation Time ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Calling Behavior ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Vervet Monkeys ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Males And Females

AbstractVervet monkeys in Amboseli National Park, Kenya are preyed upon by four types of predator: mammalian carnivores, eagles, baboons, and snakes. Over a 14 month period, adult males and females gave first alarm calls at comparable rates. Both observation on the frequency of alarm-calling and experiments on the duration of alarm-calling indicated that high-ranking adult males and females gave alarm calls more often than low-ranking adult males and females. Individuals who alarm-called most often did not vocalize most often during social interactions, nor did they spend more time than others surveying the habitat around them. There was some tendency, however, for females who alarm-called most often to precede other females in group progressions. Limited evidence suggests that adult males who gave most alarm calls were more likely than other males to have fathered the group's juveniles and infants. Among adult females, however, there was no correlation between number of offspring and frequency of first alarm calls. Females who gave alarm calls most often were not more likely than other females to spend large proportions of observation time more than 2 m from their offspring. Data on a small sample of confirmed predatory attacks suggest that the offspring of high-ranking females may have been more vulnerable than other immatures to predation. Such differential vulnerability may have resulted in part from the tendency of the offspring of high-ranking females to precede other juveniles in group progressions. Vervets of all age/sex classes alarm-called most at those species of predators to which they themselves seemed to be most vulnerable. Adult vervets gave relatively few alarm calls to predators to which their offspring, but not themselves, were vulnerable, even though such alarm calls would have been of low cost to themselves and of great potential benefit to their offspring. While some aspects of the alarm-calling behavior of vervet monkeys are consistent with the hypothesis that their alarms have evolved to benefit kin, in other respects their alarms appear to have the consequence of benefitting only the alarmists themselves. It is likely that both kin and individual selection, acting on an individual's inclusive fitness, have played a role in the evolution of vervet monkeys' alarm calls.

THE EFFECT OF CHANGING CALL DURATION AND CALLING BOUTS ON VIGILANCE IN BRANTS' WHISTLING RAT, PAROTOMYS BRANTSII

Behaviour ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (10) ◽  
pp. 1287-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliza Le Roux ◽  
Michael Cherry ◽  
Tim Jackson
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Playback Experiments ◽  
Call Duration ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Functionally Referential ◽  
Long Calls

AbstractThe function of variation in single call duration and alarm calling bouts was investigated in Brants' whistling rat, Parotomys brantsii, by means of playback experiments and video analyses of the vigilance displayed. Short calls are produced in high-risk situations, and long calls in low-risk encounters, but these calls apparently do not communicate this variance in risk to conspecifics. Both short and long single calls induced heightened vigilance in receivers, but rats did not respond differentially to the two call types, and it was concluded that P.brantsii alarm calls are not functionally referential. Multiple calls maintained a state of increased alertness in receivers for a longer period than single calls, even after the bouts had ended, but long bouts (duration: 64 s) did not lead to longer periods of vigilance than short bouts (29 s). Thus the tonic communication hypothesis is only partially supported by our study.

scholarly journals Faecal glucocorticoid metabolites and alarm calling in free-living yellow-bellied marmots

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel T Blumstein ◽  
Marilyn L Patton ◽  
Wendy Saltzman
Keyword(s):  
Present Finding ◽  
Physiological Arousal ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Marmota Flaviventris ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Potential Predator ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Faecal Glucocorticoid Metabolites ◽  
Metabolite Concentrations

When individuals of a variety of species encounter a potential predator, some, but not all, emit alarm calls. To explain the proximate basis of this variation, we compared faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations in live-trapped yellow-bellied marmots ( Marmota flaviventris ) between occasions when they did and did not emit alarm calls. We found that marmots had significantly higher glucocorticoid levels when they called than when they did not call, suggesting that stress or arousal may play an important role in potentiating alarm calls. Marmots are sensitive to variation in the reliability of callers. The present finding provides one possible mechanism underlying caller variation: physiological arousal influences the propensity to emit alarm calls.

scholarly journals Is the propensity to emit alarm calls associated with health status?

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 607-614
Author(s):  
Austin L Nash ◽  
Alexandra H M Jebb ◽  
Daniel T Blumstein
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Intestinal Parasite ◽  
Intestinal Parasites ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Playback Experiments ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Immune System Activation ◽  
System Activation

Abstract The production and structure of animal signals may depend on an individual’s health status and may provide more than one type of information to receivers. While alarm calls are not typically viewed as health condition dependent, recent studies have suggested that their structure, and possibly their propensity to be emitted, depends on an individual’s health condition and state. We asked whether the propensity of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) to emit calls is influenced by their immunological or parasite status, by quantifying both trap-elicited and natural calling rates as a function of their neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NL) ratio, the presence of a blood borne trypanosome, and the presence of several intestinal parasites (Eimeria sp., Entamoeba sp., and Ascaris sp.). We fitted mixed effects models to determine if the health measures we collected were associated with the probability of calling in a trap and with annual rates of natural alarm calling. Marmots infected with a blood-borne trypanosome were marginally more likely to call naturally and when trapped, while those infected with the intestinal parasite Ascaris were less likely to call when trapped. NL ratio was not directly associated with in-trap calling probability, but males were more likely to call when they had higher NL ratios. Thus, health conditions, such as parasite infection and immune system activation, can modulate the production of alarm signals and potentially provide information to both predators and prey about the caller’s condition. Playback experiments are required to confirm if receivers use such information.

The cessation of contact calls does not provoke or modulate alarm behaviour in a social passerine

Behaviour ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Estelle Meaux ◽  
Chao He ◽  
Luying Qin ◽  
Eben Goodale
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Alarm Call ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Playback Experiments ◽  
Contact Call ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Alarm Behaviour ◽  
Contact Calls ◽  
Crucial Information

Abstract Vocalizations that signal predation risk such as alarm calls provide crucial information for the survival of group-living individuals. However, alarm calling may attract the predator’s attention and, to avoid this cost, animals can opt for alternative strategies to indicate danger, such as ‘adaptive silence’, which is the cessation of vocalizations. We investigate here whether abrupt contact call cessation would provoke alarm responses, or would reinforce the signal given by an alarm call. In an aviary setting, we conducted playback experiments with a group-living passerine, the Swinhoe’s white-eye, Zosterops simplex. We found that birds did not respond to a sudden call cessation, nor did they have a stronger response to alarm calls followed by silence than to alarm calls followed by contact calls. Confirming previous work investigating contact call rate, it appears that in this species contact calls encode information about social factors but not environmental conditions.

ALARM CALLING IN THREE SPECIES OF MARMOTS

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (6) ◽  
pp. 731-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Blumstein
Keyword(s):  
Alarm Call ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Playback Experiments ◽  
Micro Structure ◽  
Stimulus Class ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Degree Of Risk ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

AbstractMany species produce alarm calls that vary according to situation. Theoretically, alarm call structure could covary with predator type and could communicate potentially ''referential information, or calls could covary with the degree of risk a caller experienced when it emitted a call. Using similar methods, I studied the ways in which Olympic (Marmota olympus), hoary (M. caligata), and Vancouver Island marmots (M. vancouverensis) communicated situational variation. I observed both natural alarm calling, and I artificially elicited alarm calls with simulated terrestrial and aerial predators. I used playback experiments to study marmots' responses to different alarm call variants. All three species produced four roughly similar but distinctive loud alarm vocalizations that could be categorized by their relative shape, duration, and whether calls were quickly repeated to create multi-note vocalizations. In addition, the Vancouver Island marmot produced a fifth loud alarm call-the kee-aw. Call micro-structure varied as a function of the distance the caller was from an alarming stimulus and the type of alarming stimulus. Two lines of evidence suggest that all three species had alarm calls associated with the caller's risk (i.e. they were not referential). First, marmots often changed call types within a calling bout: there were no unique stimulus-class specific vocalizations. Second, marmot responses to alarm calls were graded: marmots did not have unique responses to different call types. These three close taxonomic relatives with superficially similar calls, communicated risk differently.

Alarm calling in yellow-bellied marmots: I. The meaning of situationally variable alarm calls

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL T. BLUMSTEIN ◽  
KENNETH B. ARMITAGE
Keyword(s):  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Alarm Calling

On the Meaning of Alarm Calls: A Review of Functional Reference in Avian Alarm Calling

Ethology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 449-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon A. Gill ◽  
Andrea M.-K. Bierema
Keyword(s):  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Alarm Calling

scholarly journals Female putty-nosed monkeys ( Cercopithecus nictitans ) vocally recruit males for predator defence

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Gnepa Mehon ◽  
Claudia Stephan
Keyword(s):  
Alarm Call ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Context Specificity ◽  
Sexual Dimorphisms ◽  
Alarm Calling ◽  
Cost Benefit Ratio ◽  
Female Behaviour ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Predator Defence

Alarm calls can trigger very different behavioural changes in receivers and signallers might apply different alarm call strategies based on their individual cost-benefit ratio. These cost-benefit ratios can also vary as a function of sex. For instance, male but not female forest guenons possess loud alarms that serve warning and predator deterrence functions, but also intergroup spacing and male–male competition. In some forest guenons, the context specificity and alarm call repertoire size additionally differs between females and males but it remains unclear if this corresponds to similar sexual dimorphisms in alarm calling strategies. We here experimentally investigated whether general female and more context-specific male alarm calls in putty-nosed monkeys ( Cercopithecus nictitans ) had different effects on the opposite sex's behaviour and whether they might serve different female and male alarm calling strategies. We presented a leopard model separately to the females or to the male of several groups while ensuring that the opposite sex only heard alarm calls of target individuals. While female alarms led to the recruitment of males in the majority of cases, male alarms did not have a similar effect on female behaviour. Males further seem to vocally advertise their engagement in group defence with more unspecific alarms while approaching their group. Males switched alarm call types once they spotted the leopard model and started mobbing behaviour. Females only ceased to alarm call when males produced calls typically associated with anti-predator defence, but not when males produced unspecific alarm calls. Our results suggest that sexual dimorphisms in the context specificity of alarms most likely correspond to different alarm calling strategies in female and male putty-nosed monkeys.

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