出国留学首选一诺留学

　　啄木鸟啄木交流信息

　　Woodpeckers that listen to others of their kind drum into trees alter their behavior based on what they hear.

　　啄木鸟会根据自己听到的其他鸟啄木的声音，交换信息

　　Woodpeckers are not among them. The most familiar sound they make is when they tap on tree trunks with their bills to produce what’s called “drumming."

　　"This drumming that they show is essentially them kind of slamming their head against a tree at remarkable speeds.” Wake Forest University biologist Matthew Fuxjager.

　　“Some of the woodpeckers will use this kind of drumming-type maneuvering to excavate a nest, they'll make little caches in a tree to store food, or some of them will actually forage that way. But then they also use it for this social signal."

　　Fuxjager’s team broadcast the pre-recorded sounds of head slams to mated pairs of downy woodpeckers in the woods nearby. They discovered that there's a lot of information communicated in the drumming.

　　For example, woodpeckers that produce shorter drums are probably kind of wimpy, and easy to beat in a fight. But if a drum is longer, the challenger might be advertising itself as a stronger, tougher bird, one that's a bit harder to fend off.

　　And after hearing recordings of long drums, pairs of birds begin to coordinate the defense of their territory. They don’t bother with such behavior after short drums. [Eric R. Schuppe, Gloria D. Sanin and Matthew J. Fuxjager, The social context of a territorial dispute differentially influences the way individuals in breeding pairs coordinate their aggressive tactics, in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology]

　　The researchers think that this kind of coordination might have evolved because woodpeckers invest so much time and energy carving out their nest hole in a tree. If they were kicked out and had to start over, they might not get a chance to reproduce and fledge their offspring. By responding only to more realistic threats, woodpecker pairs can conserve energy to be expended at the hard work of raising their headstrong chicks.

　　—Jason G. Goldman

　　更多热点资讯欢迎关注：

　　新浪官方微博：@北京诚品一诺教育咨询

　　http://weibo.com/yinuoedu

　　微信订阅号：留学圈 (微信帐号：yinuoliuxue )