Science
A grassland bird eavesdrops on prairie dog calls to keep itself safe from predators
By CHRISTINA LARSON
Updated 10:04 AM EDT, June 12, 2025
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Prairie dogs are the Paul Reveres of the Great Plains: They bark to alert neighbors to the presence of predators, with separate calls for dangers coming by land or by air.
“Prairie dogs are on the menu for just about every predator you can think of”— golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, foxes, badgers, even large snakes — said Andy Boyce, a research ecologist in Montana at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
Those predators will also snack on grassland nesting birds like the long-billed curlew.
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Isn’t “nature” amazing?
Who have thought that birds could evolve to listen and differentiate between “danger – ground” and “danger – air”?
I find this almost unbelievable. I know from all the war movies that listening and smelling was ssential skills in most kinds of warfare and hunting.
From my time in survival school, I know that animals had no worry about me “sneaking” up and eating them. I wouldn’t have survived on what I could have caught. Laugh!
In our modern world of “bread and circuses” is there equivalent skills in keep us safe. Like “situational awareness” to avoid crime. “Marksmanship” to end threats quickly. “Listening” and “reading” to avoid frauds and misinformation. “Distrust all experts, politicians, and bureaucrats” who seek to deceive us for their own reasons.
Maybe we can be like “the Paul Reveres of the Great Plains” and warn family, friends, acquaintances, others of our species, and other species to the dangers we see?
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Reinke Faces Life 