Cultural Transmission of Enemy Recognition: One Function of Mobbing

@article{Curio1978CulturalTO,
  title={Cultural Transmission of Enemy Recognition: One Function of Mobbing},
  author={Eberhard Curio and U Ernst and Willy Vieth},
  journal={Science},
  year={1978},
  volume={202},
  pages={899 - 901}
}
There are at least ten suggested hypotheses for the function of mobbing predators by fish, birds, and mammals. Experiments with captive European black-birds support one of these—the "cultural transmission hypothesis." Perceiving a mobbing conspecific together with a novel, harmless bird induced blackbirds to mob the innocuous object. The mobbing response persisted during subsequent presentations of the novel bird alone, which was more effectively conditioned than an artificial control object… 
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256 Citations

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