Cooperation in complex societies: why all the noise?

How and why do animals help each other? This is an area that fascinates many ABEL members. Local colour-marked, genotyped and long-term monitored colonies of Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) are typically used, as these birds provide an ideal focal species for testing cooperative theory.

Miners have one of the more complex acoustic repertoires known, also using referential alarm calls that warn colony members of not just the presence of danger, but the type of predator that is near. Understanding their acoustic system therefore provides valuable insight into their social system and is a major research focus.