Japanese birds’ ‘snake’ calls conjure mental images: study

MIAMI: Japanese songbirds can make unique calls to warn of a snake nearby, causing their comrades to conjure a visual image of the predator and react accordingly, researchers said Monday. Until now, the ability to visualize something after hearing the word or sound was thought to be a human-only trait, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal. “The Japanese tit (Parus minor) produces particular alarm calls when, and only when, encountering a predatory snake,” said study author Toshitaka Suzuki at the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University. Researchers played recordings of songbird calls warning of a snake, while a short tree branch was moved “in a serpentine fashion — up a tree trunk or along the ground,” said the report. When birds saw this movement and heard the call, they reacted as if seeing a snake. “With a snake’s image in mind, tits can efficiently search out a snake regardless of its spatial position,” said Suzuki.

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