Communication is the link between individuals of one species and represents the essence of social... more Communication is the link between individuals of one species and represents the essence of social life. Vocal communication is one of the most studied forms of information exchange, although it also comes with interspecific barriers that are still tricky to overcome. While we are able to understand the meaning of another human’s words, we fail to understand an animal’s utterances. Among these, bird song has become a field of particular interest. However, little is known yet about many species’ vocalizations, and even less about their significance or how different factors influence them. The presented study establishes the vocal repertoire of a group of rooks and further investigates the importance of contact calls between partners in an experiment. We found that test subjects and other group members produced more contact calls after than before partners had been separated from each other, indicating stress induced by physical isolation and/or the lack of visual contact as an importa...
Establishment in urbanized environments is associated with changes in physiology, behaviour, and ... more Establishment in urbanized environments is associated with changes in physiology, behaviour, and problem-solving. We compared the speed of learning in urban and rural female common mynas, Acridotheres tristis, using a standard visual discrimination task followed by a reversal learning phase. We also examined how quickly each bird progressed through different stages of learning, including sampling and acquisition within both initial and reversal learning, and persistence following reversal. Based on their reliance on very different food resources, we expected urban mynas to learn and reversal learn more quickly but to sample new contingencies for proportionately longer before learning them. When quantified from first presentation to criterion achievement, urban mynas took more 20-trial blocks to learn the initial discrimination, as well as the reversed contingency, than rural mynas. More detailed analyses at the level of stage revealed that this was because urban mynas explored the n...
33 THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF CONTACT CALLS BY ROOKS (CORVUS FRUGILEGUS) Alexandru MUNTEANU*, DVM Prof... more 33 THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF CONTACT CALLS BY ROOKS (CORVUS FRUGILEGUS) Alexandru MUNTEANU*, DVM Professor Ionel PAPUC*, PhD Ira G. FEDERSPIEL**, PhD Professor Nicola S. CLAYTON***, PhD Nathan J. EMERY**, MD Abstract Communication is the ...
Communication is the link between individuals of one species and represents the essence of social... more Communication is the link between individuals of one species and represents the essence of social life. Vocal communication is one of the most studied forms of information exchange, although it also comes with interspecific barriers that are still tricky to overcome. While we are able to understand the meaning of another human’s words, we fail to understand an animal’s utterances. Among these, bird song has become a field of particular interest. However, little is known yet about many species’ vocalizations, and even less about their significance or how different factors influence them. The presented study establishes the vocal repertoire of a group of rooks and further investigates the importance of contact calls between partners in an experiment. We found that test subjects and other group members produced more contact calls after than before partners had been separated from each other, indicating stress induced by physical isolation and/or the lack of visual contact as an importa...
Establishment in urbanized environments is associated with changes in physiology, behaviour, and ... more Establishment in urbanized environments is associated with changes in physiology, behaviour, and problem-solving. We compared the speed of learning in urban and rural female common mynas, Acridotheres tristis, using a standard visual discrimination task followed by a reversal learning phase. We also examined how quickly each bird progressed through different stages of learning, including sampling and acquisition within both initial and reversal learning, and persistence following reversal. Based on their reliance on very different food resources, we expected urban mynas to learn and reversal learn more quickly but to sample new contingencies for proportionately longer before learning them. When quantified from first presentation to criterion achievement, urban mynas took more 20-trial blocks to learn the initial discrimination, as well as the reversed contingency, than rural mynas. More detailed analyses at the level of stage revealed that this was because urban mynas explored the n...
33 THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF CONTACT CALLS BY ROOKS (CORVUS FRUGILEGUS) Alexandru MUNTEANU*, DVM Prof... more 33 THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF CONTACT CALLS BY ROOKS (CORVUS FRUGILEGUS) Alexandru MUNTEANU*, DVM Professor Ionel PAPUC*, PhD Ira G. FEDERSPIEL**, PhD Professor Nicola S. CLAYTON***, PhD Nathan J. EMERY**, MD Abstract Communication is the ...
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