Department of Conservation Biology, J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Bürgerstrasse 50, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
Environment and Geology (HLNUG), Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, State Institute for the Protection of Birds, Europastraße 10, 35394, Giessen, Germany.
Naturwissenschaften. 2024 Jul 30;111(4):41. doi: 10.1007/s00114-024-01927-3.
Ant-following behavior is a common phenomenon in birds of Neotropical and Afrotropical rainforests but yet little is known from Central Africa. We here report on the phenomenon in lowland rainforest in Cameroon, quantifying the strength of the interaction of different ant-following bird species with driver ants and test the hypothesis that higher levels of specialization in ant-following behavior are associated with dominance or aggression-dependent plumage and other morphological traits. Flock size varied between 1 and 11 individuals with a mean size of 5.34 ± 2.68 (mean ± SD) individuals occurring at the same time. The maximum number of species present during one raid observed was ten, whereas the minimum number was four with an overall species richness of 6.89 ± 2.1 species. The 21 attending bird species strongly varied in the degree of ant-following behavior. In an interspecific comparison, plumage traits such as the presence of a colored crown, eyespots, and bare skin around the eye, in combination with metatarsus length and weight, were significantly correlated with ant-following behavior. These results suggest that-in size and identity of species-ant-following bird assemblages in Central Africa are similar to those reported from East Africa. They also suggest that ant following favors the selection of traits that signal dominance in interactions between individuals struggling for valuable food resources in the forest understory.
蚁群跟随行为是新热带和非洲热带雨林鸟类中的一种常见现象，但从中非地区却知之甚少。我们在此报告了喀麦隆低地雨林中的这一现象，量化了不同跟随蚂蚁鸟类与工蚁之间相互作用的强度，并检验了以下假设，即跟随蚂蚁行为的专业化程度越高，与依赖支配或攻击性的羽毛和其他形态特征有关。鸟群大小在 1 到 11 只个体之间变化，平均大小为 5.34 ± 2.68（平均值 ± 标准差）只个体同时出现。在一次观察到的袭击中，同时出现的物种最多可达十种，而最少可达四种，物种丰富度总体为 6.89 ± 2.1 种。21 种参与的鸟类在跟随蚂蚁的行为程度上有很大差异。在种间比较中，羽毛特征，如有色冠、眼斑和眼睛周围的裸露皮肤，与跗跖骨长度和体重相结合，与跟随蚂蚁的行为显著相关。这些结果表明，在物种的大小和身份方面，中非的蚁群跟随鸟类组合与从东非报告的相似。它们还表明，跟随蚂蚁有利于选择在个体为森林下层有价值的食物资源而斗争的相互作用中表现出支配地位的特征。
