Bluffing in the forest: Neotropical Neomorphus ground-cuckoos and peccaries in a possible case of acoustic mimicry

Autor(es)

do Amaral, Fabio Raposo ^[1] ; Macedo, Gabriel ^[1] ; Maldonado-Coelho, Marcos ^[1] ; Piacentini, Vitor de Q. ^[2] ; Keuroghlian, Alexine ^[3] ; Biondo, Cibele ^[4]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencias Ambientais Quim & Farmaceut, Diadema, SP - Brazil

^[2] Drexel Univ, Acad Nat Sci, Dept Ornithol, Philadelphia, PA 19104 - USA

^[3] IUCN Peccary Specialist Grp, Campo Grande, MS - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed ABC, Ctr Ciencias Nat & Humanas, Sao Bernardo Do Campo, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY; v. 48, n. 11, p. 1471-1474, NOV 2017.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Acoustic communication is particularly important in environments such as dense tropical forests, where the dim light constrains the efficacy of visual signals. In these environments, complex species interactions could promote the evolution of acoustic signals and result in intriguing patterns of mimicry and convergence. In the Neotropical region, Neomorphus ground-cuckoos frequently associate with herds of collared peccaries and white-lipped peccaries. Bill clacking behavior in ground-cuckoos closely resembles the sound of teeth clacking in peccaries and these acoustic signals are used in agonistic and foraging contexts in both species. Here we demonstrate that the acoustic characteristics of bill clacking in ground-cuckoos are more similar to teeth clacking of peccaries than to bill clacking of the more closely related Geococcyx roadrunner. We propose that two hypotheses may explain the evolution of the clacking behavior in these taxa. First, because peccaries are known to successfully ward off attacks from large predators to defend their herds, mimicking their clacking can deceive predators, either by triggering clacking from nearby peccaries, or making it appear to the predators that peccaries are present when they are not. Second, ground-cuckoos and peccaries could mutually benefit from the use of similar signals to alert each other of the presence of predators. In this context, ground-cuckoos could serve as sentinels while peccaries could confer protection. We also discuss alternative explanations for this striking acoustic resemblance. Ground-cuckoos and peccaries provide an interesting opportunity to study how an ecological association could foster the evolution of acoustic mimicry. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/50297-0 - Dimensions US-BIOTA São Paulo: integrando disciplinas para a predição da biodiversidade da Floresta Atlântica no Brasil
• Beneficiário: Cristina Yumi Miyaki
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 16/11439-1 - Comparando taxas evolutivas entre cantos e chamados nos Olhos-de-Fogo Sul Americanos (Aves: Pyriglena): um teste de hipóteses em uma perspectiva filogenética
• Beneficiário: Marcos Maldonado Coelho
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Jovens Pesquisadores
• Processo FAPESP: 11/23155-4 - Filogeografia multilocus comparada de três espécies de Poospiza (Aves, Passeriformes): explorando a história da Mata Atlântica montana
• Beneficiário: Fábio Sarubbi Raposo do Amaral
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Programa BIOTA - Jovens Pesquisadores