I read this article this morning about nuthatches comprehending the chirps of chickadees and found it quite interesting:
It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that – interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat . . .
The “chick-a-dee” call can have 10 to 15 “dees” at the end and varies in sound to encode information on the type of predator. It also calls in other small birds to mob the predator, Christopher Templeton of the University of Washington said in a telephone interview.
“In this case the nuthatch is able to discriminate the information in this call,” said Templeton, a doctoral candidate.
Perhaps I can teach the nuthatch to understand me when I say, “Peck out the eyes of that conservative nutjob” (I’m sure this would require a large number of “dees” at the end – many more than the number required for the agile pygmy owl – those conservatives can be sneaky).
The same is true of a man being chased by an animal. When I was a kid, I could always tell what was chasing my Pop based on the sound of his scream. If he sounded startled and pensive it was likely just a loose bull or hog; on the other hand, if he was squealing like a little girl it was probably a bobcat or a rattlesnake.
Comment by tim — March 21, 2007 @ 3:37 pm