Response to heterospecific calls in rallids

In this research I wanted to test whether water rail and little crake recognise each other's calls. Playback experiment was performed and each focal pair was subjected to four treatments: 1) a conspecific treatment, during which water rails received water rail calls (WR) and little crakes received little crake calls (LC); 2) a sympatric Rallidae treatment, during which water rails received calls of little crakes and vice versa; 3) a sympatric non-Rallidae treatment, during which water rails and little crakes were presented by calls of the little grebe (LG); and 4) a non-sympatric Rallidae treatment, during which water rails and little crakes received calls of the spotted crake (SC). Vocal and non-vocal response was measured. Description of call variants (water rail) and call types (little crake) can be found in Jedlikowski et al. 2021.本研究旨在验证普通秧鸡（water rail）与小田鸡（little crake）能否识别彼此的鸣叫声。本研究采用回放实验法，对每一组焦点个体对设置如下四种处理：1. 同种处理：普通秧鸡接收普通秧鸡鸣唱（WR），小田鸡接收小田鸡鸣唱（LC）；2. 同域秧鸡科处理：普通秧鸡接收小田鸡鸣唱，反之亦然；3. 同域非秧鸡科处理：向普通秧鸡与小田鸡播放小䴙䴘（little grebe，LG）的鸣唱声；4. 异域秧鸡科处理：向两类鸟类播放斑胸田鸡（spotted crake，SC）的鸣唱声。研究记录了两类鸟的鸣唱与非鸣唱行为反应。关于普通秧鸡的鸣唱变体及小田鸡的鸣唱类型的详细描述，可参阅Jedlikowski等（2021）的相关研究。