The impersonators

• Autores: Daniel Cossins
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3019, 2015, págs. 40-43
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Gerald Borgia has spent 20 years spying on the spectacular wooing techniques of male bowerbirds. He has watched them construct intricate bowers, and adorn these with decorations gathered from the forest. He has marveled at their flawless vocal impressions of laughing kookaburras and honey eaters, cat's meows and car engines. But even Borgia was left slack-jawed by what he caught on tape during one field trip to the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea. Poring over hundreds of hours of footage back in his lab at the University of Maryland in College Park, Borgia came across a male streaked bowerbird belting out an extraordinary soundscape. Here, Cossins finds it is not just impressive when birds mimic sound, it can be a matter of life and death.