Mobbing, a collective harassment of a predator by multiple prey species, is ubiquitous in animals. In birds, it is often prompted by specific vocalizations (mobbing calls) produced by an individual that detects a predator; this attracts nearby conspecifics and heterospecifics in a joint assault on the predator. Mutual recognition of mobbing calls among heterospecifics, even those distantly related, is widespread in birds and learning appears important for its acquisition and maintenance. Yet, the evidence for learned recognition is mostly indirect and the specific learning mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, I provide experimental evidence that free-living birds (wood warblers, Phylloscopus sibilatrix) can learn to recognize novel heterospecific mobbing calls through interspecific social learning, by associating mobbing calls of a previously unknown species with those of the already recognized heterospecifics during joint mobbing events. Moreover, individuals retained the learned recognition of novel mobbing calls over at least 2 weeks. These results illustrate interspecific social learning as one of the mechanisms underlying the widespread mutual recognition of mobbing calls among bird species. This mechanism of learning is likely to be common in the wild, enabling naive individuals to utilize a wide set of possible information sources, and result in a rapid cultural transmission of novel antipredator signal recognition within avian communities.

中文翻译：

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林莺学会识别来自异种导师的陌生物种的围攻

围攻是多种猎物对捕食者的集体骚扰，在动物中无处不在。在鸟类中，它通常是由发现捕食者的个体发出的特定发声（围攻）引起的。这会在对捕食者的联合攻击中吸引附近的同种和异种。异种物种之间对围攻呼叫的相互识别，即使是那些远亲，在鸟类中很普遍，学习对于它的获得和维持似乎很重要。然而，学习识别的证据大多是间接的，具体的学习机制在很大程度上仍然未知。在这里，我提供了实验证据，表明自由生活的鸟类（木莺，Phylloscopus sibilatrix）可以通过种间社会学习来学习识别新的异种围攻呼叫，通过在联合围攻事件期间将先前未知物种的围攻呼叫与已经识别的异种物种的围攻联系起来。此外，个人在至少 2 周内保留了对新的围攻电话的学习识别。这些结果表明，种间社会学习是鸟类之间广泛相互识别围攻呼叫的机制之一。这种学习机制可能在野外很常见，使幼稚的个体能够利用大量可能的信息来源，并导致鸟类社区内新型反捕食者信号识别的快速文化传播。这些结果表明，种间社会学习是鸟类之间广泛相互识别围攻呼叫的机制之一。这种学习机制可能在野外很常见，使幼稚的个体能够利用大量可能的信息来源，并导致鸟类社区内新型反捕食者信号识别的快速文化传播。这些结果表明，种间社会学习是鸟类之间广泛相互识别围攻呼叫的机制之一。这种学习机制可能在野外很常见，使幼稚的个体能够利用大量可能的信息来源，并导致鸟类社区内新型反捕食者信号识别的快速文化传播。