I was actually looking for evidence that white bunny tails signalled to foxes—but people mostly seem to think they signal danger to other rabbits.
Update—abstract of “Do Brown Hares Signal to Foxes?”:
“Of a total of 32 sedentary brown hares (Lepus europaeus) approached across open ground by foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 31 reacted when the fox was 50 m or less from them by adopting a bipedal stance directly facing the fox. Of five sedentary hares approached by foxes from nearby cover, none stood, three moved away and two adopted the squatting (primed for movement) posture. Hares stood before foxes in all heights of vegetation and on 42% of occasions were solitary. Hares did not stand before approaching dogs (Canis familiaris). The functions of this behaviour are considered and competing hypotheses of Predator Surveillance and Pursuit Deterrence are examined by testing predictions against results obtained. The results suggest that by standing erect brown hares signal to approaching foxes that they have been detected.”
That’s the same source I found for the quotation when I hit up the search engines, but I was rather hoping for a naturalist of some description to back up the theory. I don’t see that you could be confident of that explanation without some amount of field work. Who put in the eye-hours to develop and confirm this hypothesis?
Edit: I mean, if Eb the author did, that’s fine, but he doesn’t even mention growing up in the country.
Sorry for not citing my fox/rabbit scenario; I am the author in question… I was basing my tale on observations made by some European ethologist/semiotician. The signals given by animals as they navigate the “umwelt”. I read Uexkull, Kalevi Kull, Jesper Hoffmeyer, and Thomas Sebeok, among others.
Somewhere was the description in question. The author said that he had something like 10,000 hours of observation.
Sorry for not citing my sources. I’ll try to be more precise in note-taking.
Thanks for the quick response! If you can find the citation again among the sources you were reading, I’d appreciate it—perhaps you can add a footnote on the page RichardKennaway links.
Welcome to Less Wrong, by the way! I don’t know if you read the About page, but if you’re interested in rationality, etc., there’s a lot of good essays scattered about this blog.
O, btw, I grew up in the country. Spent several years on the sheep farm. Interestingly, the herd dogs use the same “signal” mechanism to move sheep. Rather than run around and bark, they get in “predator” pose and the sheep move accordingly.
Interesting to watch low-power energy, i.e. “signals”, accomplish work.
Now this is a completely irrelevant aside, but I remember hearing about a party at a house with three dogs, mostly in one room. A guest left to use the bathroom, and when she came back, she could see that everyone was packed in a neat group in the center of the room with the dogs patrolling and nudging the strays back in.
That is a neat story about the dogs using the predator pose. Thanks.
Would you know whether the dogs were border collies?
One of my friends had a border collie when she was a kid, and she told me that the dog was only really happy when the whole family was seated around the dining table.
Yes, border collies. The good border collies complete the work loop (move sheep) with minimal expenditure of energy. One would merely raise an eyebrow and the sheep got the message, and moved. Very impressive.
Actually, do you have a citation for this datum?
Edit: The author has commented downthread.
It’s an anecdote, which I presented very bady :-(
I was actually looking for evidence that white bunny tails signalled to foxes—but people mostly seem to think they signal danger to other rabbits.
Update—abstract of “Do Brown Hares Signal to Foxes?”:
“Of a total of 32 sedentary brown hares (Lepus europaeus) approached across open ground by foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 31 reacted when the fox was 50 m or less from them by adopting a bipedal stance directly facing the fox. Of five sedentary hares approached by foxes from nearby cover, none stood, three moved away and two adopted the squatting (primed for movement) posture. Hares stood before foxes in all heights of vegetation and on 42% of occasions were solitary. Hares did not stand before approaching dogs (Canis familiaris). The functions of this behaviour are considered and competing hypotheses of Predator Surveillance and Pursuit Deterrence are examined by testing predictions against results obtained. The results suggest that by standing erect brown hares signal to approaching foxes that they have been detected.”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1993.tb00544.x/abstract
GIYF. Author.
That’s the same source I found for the quotation when I hit up the search engines, but I was rather hoping for a naturalist of some description to back up the theory. I don’t see that you could be confident of that explanation without some amount of field work. Who put in the eye-hours to develop and confirm this hypothesis?
Edit: I mean, if Eb the author did, that’s fine, but he doesn’t even mention growing up in the country.
Sorry for not citing my fox/rabbit scenario; I am the author in question… I was basing my tale on observations made by some European ethologist/semiotician. The signals given by animals as they navigate the “umwelt”. I read Uexkull, Kalevi Kull, Jesper Hoffmeyer, and Thomas Sebeok, among others.
Somewhere was the description in question. The author said that he had something like 10,000 hours of observation.
Sorry for not citing my sources. I’ll try to be more precise in note-taking.
But it was a thrill that someone read my website!
http://adaptingsystems.com
Eb
Thanks for the quick response! If you can find the citation again among the sources you were reading, I’d appreciate it—perhaps you can add a footnote on the page RichardKennaway links.
Welcome to Less Wrong, by the way! I don’t know if you read the About page, but if you’re interested in rationality, etc., there’s a lot of good essays scattered about this blog.
O, btw, I grew up in the country. Spent several years on the sheep farm. Interestingly, the herd dogs use the same “signal” mechanism to move sheep. Rather than run around and bark, they get in “predator” pose and the sheep move accordingly.
Interesting to watch low-power energy, i.e. “signals”, accomplish work.
Now this is a completely irrelevant aside, but I remember hearing about a party at a house with three dogs, mostly in one room. A guest left to use the bathroom, and when she came back, she could see that everyone was packed in a neat group in the center of the room with the dogs patrolling and nudging the strays back in.
That is a neat story about the dogs using the predator pose. Thanks.
Would you know whether the dogs were border collies?
One of my friends had a border collie when she was a kid, and she told me that the dog was only really happy when the whole family was seated around the dining table.
I finally got around to asking—they were indeed border collies. +1 for a correct prediction!
Yes, border collies. The good border collies complete the work loop (move sheep) with minimal expenditure of energy. One would merely raise an eyebrow and the sheep got the message, and moved. Very impressive.
May well have been—I got the story secondhand myself, and I have a terrible recall for details.