AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -alarm signal, in zoology, a ritualized means of communicating a danger or threat among the members of an animal group. In many cases the signal is visual or vocal, but some animals-ants, bees, and certain fishes, for example-secrete chemical substances. Alarm communications frequently cross species boundaries.

Detailed explanation-2: -They produce three types of alarm calls: acoustically-variable ‘hoos’, ‘barks’, and ‘SOS screams’.

Detailed explanation-3: -Vervet monkeys give different alarm calls to different predators. Recordings of the alarms played back when predators were absent caused the monkeys to run into trees for leopard alarms, look up for eagle alarms, and look down for snake alarms.

Detailed explanation-4: -One hypothesis for the function of alarm calls is the “burglar alarm” hypothesis whereby upon attack, a prey renders itself dangerous to a predator by generating an alarm call that attracts a predator at higher trophic levels in the food chain; that is, attracts a predator to the prey’s own predator.