If you’ve ever listened in on a neighbor’s conversation and considered it a uniquely human trait, you might be in for a surprise. Sure, we’ve perfected the art of eavesdropping from even a great distance — if tapped phone lines orResearchers have long been curious about the ways that critters communicate with others of their own species. But they’ve increasingly focused on the complex communication that occurs between species as well.
“[Alarm call recognition] is likely to help populations cope with changing community composition, as is occurring with climate change and invasive species,” “We knew that squirrels eavesdropped on the alarm calls of some bird species, but we were excited to find that they also eavesdrop on non-alarm sounds that indicate the birds feel relatively safe,” say the authors in a. “Perhaps in some circumstances, cues of safety could be as important as cues of danger."