Evidently this aversion to a yellow and red ring pattern is innate; since motmots are burrow nesters, the experimental birds had had no opportunity to see this pattern prior to their capture.
It seems unlikely that this is a re- sponse to a wasp pattern, as adult mot mots regularly take a wide variety of hymenopterans, including the inch long Pepsis, with no apparent difficulty (7). Indeed, motmots seem remarkably resistant to the chemical defenses of most insects (5, 7). However, coral snakes might well prove dangerous to mot mots. They tend to be secretive and during the day are sometimes encoun- tered partly concealed in forest litter.
A motmot attacking a smal exposed portion of a coral snake would be in danger of being bitten, especially if that portion did not include the head. Motmots have a heavy, powerful bill but very small feet which lack the heavy, protecting scutes of a hawk or an owl. Thus even a small-mouthed rear-fanged snake might successfully inject its venom if a matmot failed in its initial attack.
The mot mots used in these experi- ments came from northwestern Costa Rica, where both the elapid Micrurus nigrocinctus and the very similar rear- fanged colubrid Erythrolamprus bizona occur (2). Venom from either of these could propably kill a turquoise-browed motmot. Moreover, there is apparently no mildly poisonous species with a coral snake pattern living in this area, and hence no opportunity for motmots this population to learn by experience to avoid this pattern. Their innate ability to recognize and avoid such a pattern is thus adaptive.
There have been a few published reports of other avian predators cap. turing either Micrurus (8) or a non venomous mimic (9). This negative evidence shows that in these instances there was no safety to be gained by being a member of the coral snake complex.
In order for mimicry to be effective, there must be predator avoid- ance of the character mimicked, and provided there is also generalization by the predator, it is irrelevant to the safety of the mimics whether this avoidance is innate or learned. The motmots' innate aversion to a general- ized coral snake pattern is the first positive evidence that such protection exists for members of the coral snake complex against avian predators. An innate response to coral snakes has been suggested for at least one mammalian predator (10); further tests should be done with other small potential pred- ators to find out whether this recogni tion is a more general phenomenon. Perhaps the complicated mechanism of Mertensian mimicry is unnecessary to explain the existence of the coral snake complex in the neotropics.
Evidently this aversion to a yellow and red ring pattern is innate; since motmots are burrow nesters, the experimental birds had had no opportunity to see this pattern prior to their capture.It seems unlikely that this is a re- sponse to a wasp pattern, as adult mot mots regularly take a wide variety of hymenopterans, including the inch long Pepsis, with no apparent difficulty (7). Indeed, motmots seem remarkably resistant to the chemical defenses of most insects (5, 7). However, coral snakes might well prove dangerous to mot mots. They tend to be secretive and during the day are sometimes encoun- tered partly concealed in forest litter.A motmot attacking a smal exposed portion of a coral snake would be in danger of being bitten, especially if that portion did not include the head. Motmots have a heavy, powerful bill but very small feet which lack the heavy, protecting scutes of a hawk or an owl. Thus even a small-mouthed rear-fanged snake might successfully inject its venom if a matmot failed in its initial attack.The mot mots used in these experi- ments came from northwestern Costa Rica, where both the elapid Micrurus nigrocinctus and the very similar rear- fanged colubrid Erythrolamprus bizona occur (2). Venom from either of these could propably kill a turquoise-browed motmot. Moreover, there is apparently no mildly poisonous species with a coral snake pattern living in this area, and hence no opportunity for motmots this population to learn by experience to avoid this pattern. Their innate ability to recognize and avoid such a pattern is thus adaptive.มีกี่เผยแพร่รายงานอื่น ๆ หมวกนกล่า ทัวริง Micrurus (8) หรือมั่นไม่มีพิษ (9) หลักฐานนี้เป็นค่าลบแสดงให้เห็นว่า ในกรณีเหล่านี้ มีความปลอดภัยไม่ได้รับ โดยการเป็นสมาชิกของงูปะการังที่ซับซ้อนเพื่อเพทมีประสิทธิภาพ ต้องมี predator หลีกเลี่ยง ance ของเลียนแบบตัวละคร และให้มีลักษณะทั่วไป โดยจะนำนักล่า มันมีความเกี่ยวข้องเพื่อความปลอดภัยของการเลียนแบบนี้หลีกเลี่ยงไม่ว่าจะโดยธรรมชาติ หรือรู้ การลายงูปะการังทั่วไป ized aversion โดยธรรมชาติของ motmots เป็นครั้งแรกหลักฐานในเชิงบวกว่า ป้องกันดังกล่าวที่มีอยู่สำหรับสมาชิกของงูปะการังที่ซับซ้อนกับนกสัตว์ การตอบสนองโดยธรรมชาติงูปะการังได้ถูกแนะนำสำหรับนักล่าที่เลี้ยงลูกด้วยนมน้อย (10); เพิ่มเติม ควรทำการทดสอบกับอื่น ๆ เล็กศักยภาพ pred-ators หาว่าทางการค้า recogni นี้เป็นปรากฏการณ์ทั่วไป บางทีกลไกซับซ้อนของเพท Mertensian คือไม่จำเป็นต้องอธิบายการดำรงอยู่ของงูปะการังที่ซับซ้อนในการ neotropics
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