Have you ever heard a mockingbird “mock” another species by singing its sounds? Vocal mimicry has fascinated humans for centuries, but no one knows why mockingbirds mimic some species but not others.
Dave Gammon and former student Brady Loux in the biology department recently learned that mockingbirds preferentially mimic species whose acoustic characteristics match the physiological capabilities of mockingbirds. This work is advancing our understanding of the development of vocal mimicry.
They presented their results last month at the national meetings of the Animal Behavior Society in Snowbird, Utah. Their poster title: “Why do vocal mimics imitate some species but not others?”