Semantic information distinguishing individual predators in the alarm calls of Gunnison's prairie dogs

Abstract

Gunnison's prairie dogs, Cynomys gunnisoni, are colonial social rodents that give alarm calls upon the approach of a predator. Field experiments at two natural colonies showed that the prairie dogs are able to encode information into their alarm calls about the colour of clothes and general shape of individual humans eliciting alarm calls. This shows that the prairie dogs are able to incorporate information about the characteristic features of individuals within a given predator category.