My primary emphasis is on working with referential communication, using prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) as a model species. Current findings are that prairie dogs have: a) different alarm calls for different species of predators; b) different escape behaviors for different species of predators; c) transmission of semantic information, in that playbacks of alarm calls in the absence of predators lead to escape behaviors that are appropriate to the kind of predator who elicited the alarm calls; d) alarm calls containing descriptive information about the general size, color, and speed of travel of the predator.
Address:
Con Slobodchikoff
Department of Biology,
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Phone: (928)-523-7231
Fax: (928)-523-7500
E-mail: Con.Slobodchikoff@nau.edu
Ph.D.: University of California, Berkeley.
B.S.: University of California, Berkeley.
Slobodchikoff Bibliography
Personal Web Page: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cns3/