Neighbours vs. strangers discrimination in Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)

Abstract

SUMMARY.Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) manifest strongly intra-and interspecific aggressivity. In our study we test the Water Rail's reaction to the calls of conspecifics neighbours and strangers, to conclude if they express the "neighbour-stranger discrimination" (NSD) and / or "the dear enemy effect" (DEE) behaviour as evolutionary attributes that would reduce the energy consumption. Ten points located 100 m apart inside the Sic Reedbeds wetland were selected. In each point the acoustic reactions to spontaneous and playback of territorial Water Rail's call were counted for three days (18, 19 and 20 April 2011), between 6:00 -8:00 p.m.. A statistically significant difference was found between the number of songs recorded after spontaneous activity and the number of calls recorded after playback. The results argues the hypothesis that individuals of this species recognize their neighbours and react less aggressively towards them. Moreover, our findings indicated that response to neighbours' calls follows a constant trajectory during the first or second half of the minute while the reaction towards foreigners is significantly losing intensity during the second half of the minute. The results suggest that the NSD and DEE are expressed in the Water Rail behaviour.

Individual vocal recognition across taxa: a review of the literature and a look into the future

“…These playback experiments have found recognition of neighbours by territory holders in a number of species. Bicolour damselfish, Pomacentrus partitus [80]; North America bullfrogs, Rana catesbeian [21,38]; water rails, Rallus aquaticus [57]; ovenbirds, Seiurus aurocapilla [50] and black howler monkeys, Alouatta pigra [27], to name just a few, all respond more aggressively towards strangers than neighbours on their territory boarder. Alternatively, individuals can also respond more aggressively to neighbours compared to strangers with the same experimental set-up as seen in winter wrens, Troglodytes troglodytes [60] and New Zealand bellbirds, Anthornis melanura [49].…”

Field evaluation for playback surveys: species-specific detection probabilities and distance estimation errors in a nocturnal bird community

“…Playback is commonly used to survey birds as it represents an efficient method to census elusive species thus by improving their detection probability (Hardy & Morrison 2000, Navarro et al 2005, Stermin et al 2017.…”

“…These birds are territorial, hard to see, and more active at night. For these reasons, they are frequently censused through playback, especially from dusk and at night (Zuberogoitia & Campos 1998, Schmidt et al 2006, Brambilla & Jenkins 2009, Seoane & Galvàn 2010, Stermin et al 2017. Through our experiment, we attempted to provide a valid insight into the playback method in surveying our target species effectively.…”