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http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/10261/3390| Title: | Distress calls may honestly signal bird quality to predators |
| Keywords: | Birds Prey quality Distress calls Honest signal Immunocompetence Body condition |
| Publisher: | Royal Society (Great Britain) |
| Description: | In predator–prey interactions, both interactors may
benefit from sharing information about prey vulnerability.
We examined the relationship between calls
used to discourage close predators (distress calls)
and the health condition of the caller to test whether
these signals are reliable indicators of prey quality.
The structure of calls from captured lesser shorttoed
larks Calandrella rufescens was related to their
body condition and T-cell-mediated immunocompetence.
Birds in better nutritional and immunological
condition utter harsher calls (i.e. they spread the call
energy over a wider range of frequency) than birds in
poorer conditions. Hence, the harshness of distress
calls seems honestly to signal the health status of prey
and thus their ability to escape, on which the predator
might base its optimal foraging choice. Previous
studies have investigated the honesty of songs that
have evolved via sexual selection, but this is the first
study, to our knowledge, the demonstrates a relationship
between individual quality and a vocalization
primarily shaped by natural selection. Peer reviewed |
| URI: | http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/10261/3390 |
| Other Identifiers: | Proc Biol Sci. 2004 December 7; 271(Suppl 6): S513–S515 1471-2954 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/3390 10.1098/rsbl.2004.0239 |
| Appears in Collections: | Digital Csic |
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