Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Curr Biol. 2022 May 23;32(10):R455-R456. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.032.
In the early morning, large groups of up to hundreds or even thousands of roosting birds, sometimes comprising the entire roost population, often take off together in sudden mass departures. These departures commonly occur in low-light conditions and structurally complex habitats where access to visual cues is likely to be restricted. Roosting birds are often highly vocal, leading us to hypothesise that vocalisations, which can propagate over large distances, could provide a means of enabling individuals to agree on when to depart - that is to establish a consensus - and thus coordinate the timing of mass movements. Investigations of the role of acoustic signals in coordinating collective decisions have been limited to honeybees and relatively small vertebrate groups (<50 individuals) and have rarely included experimental validation. Here, by combining field recordings with a large-scale experimental manipulation, we show that jackdaws (Corvus monedula) use vocalisations to coordinate mass departures from winter roosts. This provides empirical evidence for vocally-mediated consensus decision-making in large vertebrate groups.
清晨，大群鸟类（多达数百只，甚至数千只）会一起突然集体起飞，有时甚至整个栖息地的鸟类都会同时起飞。这些起飞通常发生在光线较弱和结构复杂的栖息地，在这些地方，视觉线索很可能受到限制。栖息的鸟类通常非常善于鸣叫，这让我们假设，声音可以在很大的范围内传播，这可能为个体提供了一种达成共识的方式，从而协调大规模迁徙的时间。关于声音信号在协调集体决策中的作用的研究仅限于蜜蜂和相对较小的脊椎动物群体（<50 只个体），并且很少包括实验验证。在这里，我们通过结合野外录音和大规模的实验处理，表明寒鸦（Corvus monedula）利用叫声来协调冬季栖息地的大规模迁徙。这为大型脊椎动物群体中通过声音进行的共识决策提供了经验证据。
