All clear? Meerkats attend to contextual information in close calls to coordinate vigilance
All clear? Meerkats attend to contextual information in close calls to coordinate vigilance
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全清？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2011
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
M. Manser
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Townsend;M. Zöttl;M. Manser
社会人口因素，如群体规模及其对捕食脆弱性的影响，除了内在因素外，在试图理解动物警戒行为时占主导地位。一般认为动物通过视觉来评估这些外部因素；然而，许多社会性觅食物种采用了一种直接损害视觉系统的觅食技术。在这些情况下，这些物种可能更多地依赖于声学媒介来评估它们的相对风险，并指导它们随后的反捕食者行为。我们在社会性觅食猫鼬（Suricata suricatta）中解决了这个问题。猫鼬低着头觅食，但同时也经常产生近距离的呼叫（“觅食”近距离呼叫）。在个体短暂地扫描周围环境寻找捕食者（“守卫”近距离呼叫）之后，也会产生近距离呼叫。在这里，我们首先表明，这些守卫和觅食的近距离呼叫变体实际上在声学上是不同的，其次，当受试者暴露于守卫的近距离呼叫回放时，他们比听到觅食的近距离呼叫时更不警惕（就频率和时间而言）。我们认为，这是社会性觅食动物利用叫声中编码的信息来协调它们的警惕行为的第一个证据，这种信息的主要适应功能与直接遇到捕食者无关。此外，这些结果为反捕食者行为的潜在认知机制提供了新的见解，并表明猫鼬可能能够向群体成员发出“不存在”捕食威胁的信号。如果我们要充分理解动物反捕食行为协调背后的复杂性，我们鼓励未来的研究将这些额外的听觉和认知维度考虑在内。
Socio-demographic factors, such as group size and their effect on predation vulnerability, have, in addition to intrinsic factors, dominated as explanations when attempting to understand animal vigilance behaviour. It is generally assumed that animals evaluate these external factors visually; however, many socially foraging species adopt a foraging technique that directly compromises the visual system. In these instances, such species may instead rely more on the acoustical medium to assess their relative risk and guide their subsequent anti-predator behaviour. We addressed this question in the socially foraging meerkat (Suricata suricatta). Meerkats forage with their head down, but at the same time frequently produce close calls (‘Foraging’ close calls). Close calls are also produced just after an individual has briefly scanned the surrounding environment for predators (‘Guarding’ close calls). Here, we firstly show that these Guarding and Foraging close call variants are in fact acoustically distinct and secondly subjects are less vigilant (in terms of frequency and time) when exposed to Guarding close call playbacks than when they hear Foraging close calls. We argue that this is the first evidence for socially foraging animals using the information encoded within calls, the main adaptive function of which is unrelated to immediate predator encounters, to coordinate their vigilance behaviour. In addition, these results provide new insights into the potential cognitive mechanisms underlying anti-predator behaviour and suggest meerkats may be capable of signalling to group members the ‘absence’ of predatory threat. If we are to fully understand the complexities underlying the coordination of animal anti-predator behaviour, we encourage future studies to take these additional auditory and cognitive dimensions into account.