Research shows that some animals have the ability to hear and understand, in which rowing species can imitate the cry of other species to earn and protect personal interests.
Rowing the tail, African birds imitate the sound of other species to serve their interests. Image: Paco as
Learning a language not only understands what is heard but also speaks that language. This is something that the birds rowed the tail.Dicrns similar) – Small black birds are widely distributed in Africa – can be done quite well, according to Research published in magazines Current Biology January 2025.
According to research, cGioi has a habit of watching other animals in the hope of stealing a little food. Thomas Flower, a biological lecturer at Capilano University, Canada, researched rowing in nature, when they followed a flock of Meerkat civet. He discovered that Cheo Boi would use his alarm – the sound that signaled that the predators were approaching – to threaten the Meerkat civet into the cave. At that time, the birds will rush down to pick up any piece of food left.
But that strategy eventually led to the situation like the story of “shepherd boy and wolf”. The MoLkat civet realized the typical alarm of cheo is a trick and no longer left food or escaped when hearing that sound anymore.
At this time, rowing the special talent. Rowing the split tail not only identifies the alarms of the surrounding animals, but also learns how to copy to serve their interests. When they realize their alarming sounds are no longer effective, they begin to imitate the cry of other birds, even copy the sound of the Moerkat civet. Thanks to the frequent switch between the alarms of many different species, rowing makes Merkat be alert and leave food.
“Cheo knows how to imitate the species they are watching. Thanks to that, they can maintain their tricks,” Flower said. In addition to Moerkat civet, they also monitor other birds and imitate the alarms of these species to steal food.
This strategy shows that the split tail is capable of learning sound from other species and used for their benefits. When a sound is no longer effective, they know how to turn to new sound more effectively.
Flower is still trying to determine the exact processes in the head of the rowing bird when they use false alarms to serve their interests. He is not sure whether they intentionally deceive other animals – the behavior showing more complex cognitive processes – or simply seeing repeating certain sounds will help to earn food.
Currently, Flower has not found evidence that rowing young understands that they are deceiving other animals when imitating the alarm. But he said that children also repeat the sounds they do not understand and eventually learn the meaning through the process of “trying and wrong”. Rowing is showing some signs of learning “language”, but many things are still mysterious.