Researchers find scrub jays congregate over dead
Monday, September 3, 2012 - 07:31
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—A small group of researchers from the University of California, Davis has found that a species of bird, the western scrub jay, responds to the presence of a dead specimen of one of their own, by calling out loudly to others of their kind and congregating around the body for up to day or two. The team, made up of T.L. Iglesias, R. McElreath and G.L. Patricelli discovered the birds' unique behavior by leaving dead jays in areas where the birds are known to exist and, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Animal Behavior, watching as they called out to others to join in, forming a loud aggregation.