video: A male Japanese tit approaches a stick being moved up a tree trunk in a snake-like fashion during the playback of snake-specific alarm calls. view more
Credit: PNAS
In a study aimed at testing whether alarm calls used to warn against predators evoke mental images in free-living Japanese tits (Parus minor), a researcher reports that the birds appeared more visually perceptive, approaching within 1 m of a stick raised in a serpentine fashion up a tree trunk, when they heard playback of alarm calls normally used by the birds to warn against bird-eating snakes than when they heard playback of general alarm calls; the birds were also less visually perceptive when the stick's movement did not resemble that of the snakes, suggesting that vocalization in nonhuman animals can evoke mental images of objects.
Article #17-18884: "Alarm calls evoke a visual search image of a predator in birds," by Toshitaka N. Suzuki.
MEDIA CONTACT: Toshitaka N. Suzuki, Kyoto University, JAPAN; tel: +81-90-6045-0039; e-mail: <toshi.n.suzuki@gmail.com>
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences