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effects of playing tapes



 I'm forwarding the two e-mails below for those carolinabirders interested
in why playing tapes is not a good idea. They were sent to the Ornith-L
listserve.

>Verajean wrote:
 >
 >>Members,
 >>I am a lay person only, but am very interested in the energy spent when a
 >>bird is exposed to a taped call of the male of the species and foregoes
his
 >>regular duties to try to repel that perceived territorial invader. I
would
 >>like to explain the why not of using tapes, to others in my birding
groups
 >>and basicall I can do that on a very limited level. Do any of you have
 >>knowledge of studies/ papers from which I may learn more about the
 >>scientific recording of energies spent? How does that affect the overall
 >>success of the nesting effort if the tapes are used regularly to view a
 >>particular species?
 >>
 >>Vicki Hatfield-Vice Pres./Trip Chair
 >>Grand Lake Audubon Society
 >>Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma
 >>The greenest corner of the state....n.e.
 >>Grand Lake O' the Cherokees
 >>verajean@greencis.net

Here
  (http://www.nature.com/nsu/020429/020429-14.html) is a just-published
study showing that many female birds (and some other animals) "eavesdrop"
on the singing battles of their male counterparts. They then make choices
based on whether their mate was perceived to win or lose a singing contest.
The interesting thing apropos to this thread is that the researcher, Daniel
Mennill of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, used recordings of male
Chickadees to act as the aggressor (or subservient) males, and elicit the
behavior. This seems to be proof that recordings of males in the field can
have a profound effect on the natural balance of things...

Doug
*****************************************
Doug Von Gausig
http://www.naturesongs.com
Digitally Recorded Sounds from Nature
Specializing in Bird Sounds
*****************************************

Charlotte Goedsche
Weaverville NC
goedsche@mindspring.com