Ravens respond to unfamiliar corvid alarm calls
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Ravens respond to unfamiliar corvid alarm calls Marika Davídková1 · Petr Veselý1 · Michaela Syrová1 · Jana Nácarová1 · Thomas Bugnyar2 Received: 24 January 2020 / Revised: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 18 April 2020 © Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft e.V. 2020
Abstract Eavesdropping on heterospecific alarm calls is a crucial source of information for many species (including corvids) and it is effective especially if these species form mixed-species flocks, have a similar spectrum of predators, and share habitat. Previous research on wild common ravens (Corvus corax) has shown that they react to the jackdaws’ alarm call. We tested their responses to the heterospecific alarm calls of various bird species differing in familiarity and taxonomical relatedness to ravens. Two other corvid species (the blue jay Cyanocitta cristata and the European jay Garrulus glandarius) and two non-corvids (the black-headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus and the laughing gull Leucophaeus atricilla) were presented. We played back the tested alarm calls to free-ranging ravens at a feeding site and observed the ravens’ responses to particular stimuli. We observed three behavioural responses made by the tested ravens: flying away, freezing (ceasing to move and crouching on the ground), and vigilance (observing the surroundings). The ravens responded to the Eurasian jay alarm call by freezing and flying away and to the blue jay alarm call by freezing and vigilance. The laughing gull alarm call induced mostly vigilance and the black-headed gull alarm call did not elicit any reaction. The responses to the alarm calls of both jays were similar to the responses to the playbacks of conspecific alarm calls, used as control (as well as to the response to a jackdaw alarm call from the previous study), which may point to the existence of a specific corvid characteristic in their alarm calls. The response to the alarm calls of both American species included vigilance, which suggests an uncertainty about the meaning of the call. Keywords Antipredator behaviour · Corvid · Gull · Heterospecific call · Jay · Raven Zusammenfassung Kolkraben reagieren auf Alarmrufe von anderen Rabenvögeln, selbst wenn diese unbekannt sind Viele Vögel können über das Belauschen der Alarmrufe von anderen Arten wichtige Informationen über potentielle Gefahrensituationen sammeln, besonders wenn sie mit diesen Arten gemeinsame Gruppen bilden, ein ähnliches Spektrum von Raubfeinden haben, und sich ein Habitat teilen. Jüngste Forschung hat gezeigt, dass Kolkraben auf die Alarmrufe von Dohlen reagieren. Wir haben hier die Reaktion von Raben auf die Alarmrufe von mehreren Arten getestet, die den Raben unterschiedlich gut bekannt sind bzw. die mit Raben unterschiedlich eng verwandt sind. Wir verwendeten hierzu zwei Arten von Rabenvögeln (Blauhäher Cyanocitta cristata und Eichelhäher Garrulus glandarius) und zwei Möwenarten Communicated by F. Bairlein. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01781-w
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