Abstract
What makes a ‘community informant’? Reliability and anti-predator signal eavesdropping across mixed-species flocks of tits
Highlights
Information about predators is vital for the survival of prey, and many species, across a wide range of taxa, produce anti-predator vocalizations that help to defend themselves and others from predators (Gill & Bierema, 2013; Townsend & Manser, 2013)
Given the variation in the extent to which species produce information about predators, communities are thought to be made up of information sources, those species that frequently produce reliable and detailed information about predator threats, information scroungers, those species that instead eavesdrop on the information contained in other species’ anti-predator signals, and community informants, an information source species whose anti-predator calls are so widely used by heterospecifics in the community that their presence can affect the species dynamics and structure of that community (Goodale & Beauchamp, 2010; Goodale et al, 2010; Hetrick & Sieving, 2011; Pagani-Núñez et al, 2018; Soard & Ritchison, 2009)
There are several potential factors that might lead to variation in signalling behavior; here we focus on three key variables: group size, conspecific number, and presence of heterospecifics
Summary
Information about predators is vital for the survival of prey, and many species, across a wide range of taxa, produce anti-predator vocalizations that help to defend themselves and others from predators (Gill & Bierema, 2013; Townsend & Manser, 2013). These anti-predator signals warn about the presence of a predator, but can contain information about the predator’s specific level of threat, such as its size (Evans et al, 1993; Templeton et al, 2005), speed (Evans et al, 1993), distance (Baker & Becker, 2002; Murphy et al, 2013), type (Griesser, 2009; Placer & Slobodchikoff, 2000, 2004; Suzuki, 2014, 2018), and even behavior (Gill & Bierema, 2013; Griesser, 2008; Marler, 1955; Townsend & Manser, 2013) As this information can be costly to acquire and produce, it is thought that many species, instead of acquiring their own information, eavesdrop on other species’ anti-predator signals (Clucas et Carlson et al 215 al., 2004; Fuong, et al, 2014; Igic et al, 2019; Lea et al, 2008; Magrath & Bennett, 2012; McLachlan et al, 2019; Munoz et al, 2015; Sherman, 1977; Templeton & Greene, 2007). The presence of heterospecifics can affect the calling behavior of some species, for example, by either not calling or by increasing calling behavior (Griesser & Ekman, 2005; Igic et al, 2019; Karakashian et al, 1988; Ridley et al, 2007)
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