South African bird cries wolf to steal food
The fork-tailed drongo mimics the alarm calls of other species, causing targets to flee an imagined predator, so it can steal the hard won food. Researchers have discovered that the clever mimics can ape up to 51 different calls....
The fork-tailed drongo mimics the alarm calls of other species, causing targets to flee an imagined predator, so it can steal the hard won food. Researchers have discovered that the clever mimics can ape up to 51 different calls.
The drongos were previously known to be deft mimics - what was not known was that they would ape the alarms of the specific animal they were trying to steal from, and that they would alter their mimicry when the marks became wise to the con.
Animal communication may just be a lot more sophisticated than we give it credit for.
Tom Flower is with the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, and he's been studying the drongos since 2008. He says that the drongos are first and foremost fly-catchers, but when cold weather means a shortage of their airborne prey, they turn to their trickery.
Hear Mr. Flower discuss his most recent research on drongos in the Kalahari, which will be published in Science magazine, last week.