What the other chipmunks choose to do with that information seems to depend on how reliable the squaller was. “The main idea is that if you have some guys who cry wolf all the time, they shouldn’t be trusted.” She recorded calls from a range of chipmunks who fell on different places along what she and her colleagues called the “shyness-boldness continuum,” and played them back to other chipmunks. The listeners perked up and paid attention when they heard a distress signal coming from a bold chipmunk, and seemed not to care as much about one from the oft-panicked.
