Video: Zebra finch call prepares their eggs for #climate_change | Science | AAAS
▻http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/video-zebra-finch-call-prepares-their-eggs-climate-change
Scientists have long worried whether animals can respond to the planet’s changing climate. Now, a new study reports that at least one species of songbird—and likely many more—already knows how to prep its chicks for a warming world. They do so by emitting special calls to the embryos inside their eggs, which can hear and learn external sounds. This is the first time scientists have found animals using sound to affect the growth, development, behavior, and reproductive success of their offspring, and adds to a growing body of research revealing that birds can “doctor” their eggs.
“The study is novel, surprising, and fascinating, and is sure to lead to much more work on #parent-embryo_communication,” says Robert Magrath, a behavioral ecologist at the Australian National University in Canberra who was not involved in the study.