Size and shape information serve as labels in the alarm calls of Gunnison＇s prairie dogs Cynomys gunnisoni

作     者：C. N. SLOBODCHIKOFF William R. BRIGGS Patricia A DENNIS Anne-Marie C. HODGE 

作者机构：Department of Biological Sciences Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ 86011 USA Department of Biological Sciences Auburn University Auburn Alabama 36849 USA Present Address: Department of Zoology and Physiology University of Wyoming Laramie WY82071 USA 

出 版 物：《Current Zoology》 (动物学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2012年第58卷第5期

页      面：741-748页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0810[工学-信息与通信工程] 07[理学] 08[工学] 081001[工学-通信与信息系统] 071002[理学-动物学] 

基　　金：funding was provided by the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at Northern Arizona University 

主　　题：Gunnison's prairie dogs Prairie dogs Alarm calls Referential communication 

摘      要：Some animals have the capacity to produce different alarm calls for terrestrial and aerial predators. However, it is not clear what cognitive processes are involved in generating these calls. One possibility is the position of the predator： Anything on the ground receives a terrestrial predator call, and anything in the air receives an aerial predator call. Another possibility is that animals are able to recognize the physical features of predators and incorporate those into their calls. As a way of elucidating which of these mechanisms plays a primary role in generating the structure of different calls, we performed two field experiments with Gunnison＇s prairie dogs. First, we presented the prairie dogs with a circle, a triangle, and a square, each moving across the colony at the same height and speed. Second, we presented the prairie dogs with two squares of differing sizes. DFA statistics showed that 82.6 percent of calls for the circle and 79.2 percent of the calls for the triangle were correctly classified, and 73.3 percent of the calls for the square were classified as either square or circle. Also, 100 percent of the calls for the larger square and 90 percent of the calls for the smaller square were correctly classified. Because both squares and circles are features of terrestrial predators and triangles are features of aerial predators, our results suggest that prairie dogs might have a cognitive mechanism that labels the abstract shape and size of different predators, rather than the position of the predator [Current Zoology 58 （5）： 741-748, 2012].