Habitats matter: the incidence of and response to fear screams in a habitat generalist, the vinous-throated parrotbill Paradoxornis webbianus

Abstract

A fear scream is a specific vocalization produced by many animal taxa including humans when confronted with an immediate threat of death. We studied population variation in the incidence of fear screams and its correlation with habitat type using a habitat generalist bird species, the vinousthroated parrotbill (Paradoxornis webbianus). Playback experiments were also conducted to determine how conspecifics respond to scream calls in this species. Overall, about 21 % of parrotbills consistently produced fear screams while being handled. Neither morphological traits nor flock size was related to screaming tendency, but females tended to scream more than males. The propensity to scream also differed significantly between geographic groups, and, interestingly, this difference was closely related to habitat type; parrotbills in closed habitats such as reedbeds or mountain forests screamed more frequently than those in open habitats. Playback experiments showed that fear screams successfully elicited rapid vocal and behavioral responses from conspecifics. Consistent with the attraction hypothesis, our study suggests that fear screams may function to gather both conspecifics and other species around the caller, which may directly or indirectly disturb the predator, thus giving the caller a chance to escape. The benefits of screaming may be influenced by environmental (e.g., habitat type) and biological (e.g., body mass) factors, which may ultimately account for the variability in propensity for screaming within and between species.

Asymmetric Response to Heterotypic Distress Calls in the Lizard Liolaemus chiliensis

“…; Lee et al. ), or a learning process (Conover ; Griffin ; Carter et al. ), although there is no independent evidence of such behavior in Liolaemus .…”

“…Remarkably, however, southern lizards restored their activity faster than northern lizards (i.e., shorter latency to activity), and remained closer to the source of the stimulus, the front of the enclosure. Potentially, approaching the stimulus may be part of a mobbing behavior (Russ et al 1998;Lee et al 2015), or a learning process (Conover 1994;Griffin 2009;Carter et al 2015), although there is no independent evidence of such behavior in Liolaemus.…”

Geographic variation in call structure, likelihood, and call-song associations across subspecies boundaries, migratory patterns, and habitat types in the Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)

“…All 4 calls are broadband vocalizations with rapid onset and offset. Alarm and distress calls of passerines such as the chuck, rattle, and scream, especially those that are highly localizable, often draw the attention of both conspecific and heterospecific individuals to investigate the source of the call and, in some cases, mob potential predators or other threats (Stefanski and Falls 1972a, 1972b, Hurd 1996, Chu 2001, Lee et al 2015. As a result, these call types may be under convergent selection to be broadly recognizable and easy to localize for both conspecifics and heterospecifics.…”