Visual obstruction, but not moderate traffic noise, increases reliance on heterospecific alarm calls

Chaminda P Ratnayake; You Zhou; Francesca S E Dawson Pell; Dominique A Potvin; Andrew N Radford; Robert D Magrath

doi:10.1093/beheco/arab051

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Visual obstruction, but not moderate traffic noise, increases reliance on heterospecific alarm calls

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Visual obstruction, but not moderate traffic noise, increases reliance on heterospecific alarm calls

Chaminda P Ratnayake, You Zhou, Francesca S E Dawson Pell, Dominique A Potvin, Andrew N Radford and Robert D Magrath

Behavioral Ecology, Vol.32(5), pp.941-951

2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab051

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Abstract

alarm calls

anti-predator vigilance

anthropogenic noise

cross-modal interaction

eavesdropping

information con- straint

visual barrier

Animals rely on both personal and social information about danger to minimize risk, yet environmental conditions constrain information. Both visual obstructions and background noise can reduce detectability of predators, which may increase reliance on social information, such as from alarm calls. Furthermore, a combination of visual and auditory constraints might greatly increase reliance on social information, because the loss of information from one source cannot be compensated by the other. Testing these possibilities requires manipulating personal information while broadcasting alarm calls. We therefore experimentally tested the effects of a visual barrier, traffic noise, and their combination on the response of Australian magpies, Cracticus tibicen, to heterospecific alarm calls. The barrier blocked only visual cues, while playback of moderate traffic noise could mask subtle acoustic cues of danger, such as of a predator’s movement, but not the alarm-call playback. We predicted that response to alarm calls would increase with either visual or acoustic constraint, and that there would be a disproportionate response when both were present. As predicted, individuals responded more strongly to alarm calls when there was a visual barrier. However, moderate traffic noise did not affect responses, and the effect of the visual barrier was not greater during traffic-noise playback. We conclude that a reduction of personal, visual information led to a greater reliance on social information from alarm calls, confirming indirect evidence from other species. The absence of a traffic-noise effect could be because in Australian magpies hearing subtle cues is less important than vision in detecting predators.

Details

Title: Visual obstruction, but not moderate traffic noise, increases reliance on heterospecific alarm calls
Authors: Chaminda P Ratnayake (Author) - Australian National University
You Zhou (Author) - Australian National University
Francesca S E Dawson Pell (Author) - Australian National University
Dominique A Potvin (Author) - Australian National University
Andrew N Radford (Author) - University of Bristol
Robert D Magrath (Corresponding Author) - Australian National University
Publication details: Behavioral Ecology, Vol.32(5), pp.941-951
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab051
ISSN: 1465-7279
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99549708202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Behavioral Sciences; Biology; Ecology; Zoology

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