What is it about?
This study looks at seabird chicks in the first week after hatching, showing that their calls can inform on the behavioural and emotional context they find themselves in. Little auks are very colonial seabirds nesting in remote areas of the High Arctic, leading socially complex lives. Their expression patterns are similar to those seen in other species. For example, negative calls are much more disorganised than the positve ones. This also means that in negative situations, one cannot tell the individuals apart based on their vocalisations only. That's because in a situation of danger it's more important to inform others about the danger, and not your identity.
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Photo by Oleksandr Sushko on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This shows that emotional expression is very stable throughout evolution. Thanks to this, we are able to understand emotions of those of species other than our own! It's really important, because emotions are the basic drivers of behaviour, and their expression is some of the most socially useful information.
Perspectives
We are particularly stoked to share this work, because the studies of animal emotions are often done on captive, adult animals. Here, we have the absolutely unique chance to look into the affect of wild seabirds nesting in the remote High Arctic!
Anna N Osiecka
University of Gdańsk, Poland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts, PLoS ONE, February 2024, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299033.
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