
Loss of cultural song diversity in a declining Hawaiian forest bird community - anigbrowl
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.190719
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jdkee
I find it fascinating how animals adapt and transmit knowledge to new
generations.

"Reintroduced populations of bighorn sheep and moose did not migrate as
historical herds had. However, after several decades, newly established herds
were better able to track the emergence of vegetation in the environment and
were increasingly migratory. Thus, newly introduced animals learned about
their environment and shared the information through social exchange."

[https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6406/1023](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6406/1023)

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sdenton4
This is a really interesting finding, but the conclusions seem a bit arguable.

Complexity helps individuals stand out in a crowd, but species markers make it
easy to distinguish and find a mate in the first place. So it seems natural to
me that declining population would lead to less complexity (due to less
competition) and more reliance on the species markers (to help connect more
disperse individuals).

There are also studies where captive song birds increase complexity in the
absence of other stuff to do. So I doubt this is an irreversible change.

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vallismortis
Anecdotally, I swear that in the late 90's one of the bird species in Michigan
switched over to the Nokia ring tone.

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ijiiijji1
You must be Sir David Attenborough looking for Lyre birds ;)

[https://youtu.be/mSB71jNq-yQ](https://youtu.be/mSB71jNq-yQ)

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vallismortis
Holy cow, that was fascinating and disturbing - I wonder how much more that
bird is capable of, it reminds me of Whistler from Sneakers.

I think the species that was imitating the cell phone was a rose-breasted
grosbeak, and it wasn't nearly as perfect as that Lyre, but close enough to be
recognizable.

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artur_makly
meanwhile Parakeets all over Florida are singing ..’hello Moto!’ and ‘can you
hear me now!?’

