School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.
Anim Cogn. 2021 Jan;24(1):213-216. doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01440-w. Epub 2020 Oct 9.
The ability to use heterospecific alarm calls is adaptive in the wild, as it provides an opportunity to avoid predators. We now know that several species are able to respond to alarm calls intended for others. However, this capacity has never been investigated in domestic animals. The capacity to use heterospecific alarm calls may be relevant for free-range domestic species, especially when they share predators with wild signallers. Using playback experiments, we investigated the vigilance behaviour of free-range naked neck chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) when confronted with alarm calls (test playbacks) and songs (control playbacks) of a commonly occurring wild passerine, the great tit (Parus major). We found that subjects exhibited an increased vigilance to alarm calls compared to songs, therefore, showing that chickens respond to heterospecific signals as wild birds do. Recently, there has been an increased interest for free-range poultry production, notably because of the benefits of this farming method for chicken welfare. Although future studies are required to address this question, mortality due to predation may be reduced through the implementation of structures in areas frequented by wild heterospecific signallers.
在野外，使用异族警报叫声的能力是适应性的，因为它提供了避免捕食者的机会。我们现在知道，有几种物种能够对其他物种的警报叫声做出反应。然而，这种能力从未在家畜中进行过研究。使用异族警报叫声的能力可能与自由放养的家畜物种有关，特别是当它们与野生信号发出者共享捕食者时。我们使用播放实验研究了自由放养的裸颈鸡（Gallus gallus domesticus）在面对警报叫声（测试播放）和歌声（控制播放）时的警戒行为一种常见的野生雀形目鸟，大山雀（Parus major）。我们发现，与歌声相比，实验对象对警报叫声表现出更高的警惕性，因此，表明鸡像野生鸟类一样对异族信号做出反应。最近，人们对自由放养家禽生产越来越感兴趣，尤其是因为这种养殖方式对鸡的福利有好处。尽管需要进一步的研究来解决这个问题，但通过在经常有野生异族信号发出者出没的地区设置结构，可以减少因捕食而导致的死亡率。
