Watch out for flying raccoons
In phonetics class this week, we’ve been studying vowel production. As it turns out, there are a LOT of vowels that humans can articulate. Somehow the topic of conversation drifted to chicken alarm calls (don’t ask me how) and Dr. Beckman told us about a research project from a few years ago. Apparently bioacousticians (how’s that for a job title?) in Australia studied the specific conditions under which chickens produce their various alarm calls. They really only have two basic calls. One call is in response to a ground predator like a raccoon and prompts the chickens to stand taller and prepare to work together to drive the predator away. The other call is in response to an aerial predator like a falcon and causes the chickens to run for cover or hunker down and watch the sky if no cover is available.
That pretty much settles the issue for most people, but our intrepid scientists weren’t quite finished. Using the magic of video technology, they created a realistic clip (as far as the chickens were concerned anyway) of a raccoon flying through the air. I kid you not! I even found the article that appeared in Science magazine (flying raccoon reference is halfway through page two). I’m still looking for the research paper in which they published this stuff.
So how did our intrepid Australian chickens react to flying raccoons? With their aerial alarm call, of course.
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I was just sitting here guffawing and wiping tears at the prospect of a flock of chickens faced with the decision of what to do with a flying ground predator…”Now what?” I can imagine them all running to the rooster and screaming, “Do something!!!”
I tried to impress a girl by telling her about this study. It didn’t work as good as I hoped. I can photoshop you a picture of a flying racoon (or anything for that matter) if you need one in case of emergency.