| Breaking the
code on chicken clucks
A certain
"took, took, took" that male chickens make functions like the
cry "Hey, buffet’s open!"—perhaps the first such call to
food to be fully documented in animals.
References:
Evans, C.S., and
L. Evans. 1999. Chicken food calls are functionally referential. Animal
Behaviour 58(August):307.
Further Readings:
Dittus, W. 1984.
Toque macaque food calls: Semantic communication concerning food
distribution in the environment. Animal Behaviour 32:470.
Hauser, M.D. 1998.
Functional referents and acoustic similarity: Field playback experiments
with rhesus monkeys. Animal Behaviour 55(June):1647.
Milius, S. 1998.
The science of EEEEEK! Science News 154(Sept. 12):174.
Further
information about primate cognitive neuroscience can be found at http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/.
The Chris Evans’
Web site offers chicken pictures and sounds at http://galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au.
Sources:
Christopher S.
Evans
Macquarie University
Department of Psychology
Sydney, NSW 2109
Australia
Mark D. Hauser
Harvard University
Department of Psychology
33 Kirkland Street, Room 980
Cambridge, MA 02138
From Science
News, Vol. 156, No. 9, August 28, 1999, p. 135. Copyright © 1999,
Science Service. |