\n<\/p>\n
When danger approaches, many creatures seem to follow the ancient proverb that \u201cthe enemy of my enemy is my friend.\u201d Researchers have recently been finding subtle ways that animals communicate with other species in this kind of cooperative defense pact.<\/p>\n
For example, a recent study in Nature Ecology & Evolution documented more than 20 bird species on four continents that emit virtually identical \u201cwhining\u201d calls when they spot brood parasites such as cuckoos. That call is essentially \u201cthe word for \u2018cuckoo,\u2019\u201d says study co-lead author James Kennerley, an ornithologist at Cornell University. \u201cAnd it\u2019s recruiting individuals to come together [against] this common enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Brood parasites lay eggs in other birds\u2019 nests, manipulating the host parents into raising their chicks for them. At a field site in Australia, Kennerley has witnessed individuals from a dozen or more species mob a cuckoo in response to a chorus of whining calls. These mobs can be so ferocious that Kennerley and his colleagues need to cage the taxidermy cuckoo used in their experiments to protect it. Otherwise the attacking birds would have \u201cjust completely shredded it to pieces,\u201d Kennerley says.<\/p>\n
Many birds also share a common vocabulary for predators. Research by wildlife ecologist Erick Greene, an emeritus professor at the University of Montana, and others shows that various songbirds\u2014and even red squirrels\u2014produce recognizable \u201cseet\u201d calls to warn of a raptor in flight. The calls are too high-pitched for raptors to hear well, so the predators remain oblivious as info about their arrival shoots through the forest. If the raptor perches, songbirds switch to \u201cmobbing\u201d calls, a distinct vocalization that, as Greene puts it, \u201cdraws in the troops [to] drive that raptor out of Dodge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monkeys, lemurs and chipmunks also recognize other species\u2019 alarm calls. And in coral reefs, unrelated fish seem to swap visual and chemical cues as protection against dangers such as hungry barracudas. But cooperative defense is not the only reason for cross-species communication. Among other things, it may help birds migrate and enhance food intake among mixed-species monkey troops and dolphin pods. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found that when seabirds with good vision, such as black-browed albatrosses, forage with seabirds with strong senses of smell, such as white-chinned petrels, they both have far greater success at catching krill. Unlike with the seet and whining calls, however, it\u2019s unclear whether they\u2019re deliberately signaling to one another or \u201cjust randomly following other birds,\u201d says study lead author Jesse Granger, an organismal biophysicist at Duke University.<\/p>\n
But clearly, \u201cvery complex multispecies communication networks are pervasive,\u201d Greene says. \u201cIt really behooves [animals] to pay attention to one another,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt can save their lives.\u201d <\/p>\n
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