Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 112, Issue -, Pages 23-27Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.11.016
Keywords
alarm vocalization; antipredator behaviour; habituation-discrimination; individual recognition; Pavo cristatus
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Funding
- National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship
- Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grant
- Animal Behavior Graduate Group at the University of California Davis
- Chapman Memorial Fund
- National Academy of Sciences
- Philanthropic Educational Organization Scholar Award
- National Geographic Society/Waitt Foundation grant
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Animals of many different species discriminate among individuals based on acoustic properties of vocalizations. These vocalizations are produced in different contexts, including territorial defence and parenteoffspring interactions. They are also produced in response to predators, but we know less about whether animals, especially birds, are able to discriminate among individuals based on antipredator calls. We therefore examined whether an avian species (peafowl, Pavo cristatus) is able to differentiate between the antipredator calls of different individuals. Using a habituation-discrimination playback paradigm, we habituated peahens to the antipredator calls of a given individual and then examined their responses to additional calls from that individual and to calls from a novel individual. We found that peahens responded more strongly to calls from the novel individual than from the original individual, demonstrating that they are able to differentiate between individuals based on the acoustic properties of antipredator calls. The ability to differentiate between individual callers may be useful to peahens in modifying their antipredator behaviour based on signaller reliability. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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