As every family with kids knows: if you want to be heard, speak up! Talking over each other at the dinner table or in the car after school can create a frenzy of noise, so if someone wants to be noticed they’d better be loud! As it turns out, this sibling rivalry (and constant chatter) appears to also exist in barn owl nestlings vying for food from the parent owl. In a recent study with barn owls (Tyto alba), barn owl nestlings become louder and make more calls for food the more times they are interrupted by their intra-nest competitors. The nestlings, or owlets as baby owls can also be described, were also found to create long calls to compete with other nestlings in an attempt to own the local airwaves.
The researchers at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland wanted to study the communication between the nestlings and see how the desire to be heard by the food source (i.e. a parent) conflicted with the need to not be heard by a predator. Sibling nestlings were recorded to understand sibling interactions, which resulted in an apparent pattern of turn-taking so each owlet could speak clearly. After noticing this, researchers applied a fake call into the nest to interrupt and a nestling that was communicating. Understandably, the nestlings reacted to this like many of us do – by getting more chatty and kicking the volume up a notch so that you know you’re being heard!
Understanding the technicalities of barn owl nestling communication shows biologists and conservationists alike how bird species can communicate, compete, and develop with other species in the local environment. Additionally, this research shows us the intricacies of social hierarchies within a species and how even among barn owls it’s inappropriate to interrupt!
Ducouret, P., Dreiss, A.N., Gemard, C., Falourd, X., & Roulin, A.. (2018). Barn owl nestlings vocally escalate when interrupted by a sibling: evidence from an interactive playback experiment. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.09.003.
Briana Tolman
October 17, 2018 — 2:01 am
This is a really cool study!! I wonder how scientists first noticed this in order to have enough of an idea to make a hypothesis. It’s nice to know how barn owls interact and compete with each other!
Alina Vadsaria
October 17, 2018 — 2:29 am
It is just amazing to see how animals and us humans share so many of the same behaviors. I know I sometimes do this, but who knew owls would too?! I am just wondering how long was the study or how many times the fake call was introduced to the owls, just to understand if the owls’ responses were consistent. But overall moral of the story is, whether you are an owl or human, be loud if you want to be heard!