Different species–especially prey species–have been previously recorded to respond to alarm calls originating from other species, in order to increase their own safety and spatial awareness. This is crucial for survival as a small herbivore in the Kenyan bush habitat, where Guenther’s Dik-dik (Madoqua guentheri) is constantly at risk of being preyed upon by avian and terrestrial predators alike. A relatively unexplored question is how species rank heterospecific and conspecific alarm calls, as well as combinations of heterospecific alarm calls. The project involved exposing pairs of Gunther's Dik-diks to the alarm calls of local terrestrial and avian species with similar predators, and quantifying their reactions based on numerical scales created for the experiment. An initial analysis of the results collected in our experiment show that there is a significant difference between the subjects’ reactions to the control playback and the other experimental playbacks. Our results support the idea that when exposed to the alarm calls of other local species, as well as its own alarm call, Guenther’s Dik-dik will have a significant reaction, with a more urgent immediate reaction corresponding to the alarm calls of the avian species, and of another member of the same dik-dik species. Based on the data collected about the latency of the subjects to resume normal activity, it is visible that the dik-dik call resulted in the longest period of time before the subjects ceased their initial reactions to the playback. Once again, the terrestrial call playbacks and playback combination of terrestrial and avian calls were highly similar, and the second highest latency time was observed for the solely avian calls. Another inference that can be made from our results is that the Madoqua guentheri will react with more urgency to the alarm call of a species with a higher vantage point than itself, especially within the enclosed study area, since terrestrial predators are less of a threat within the area. It may also be proposed–due to the significance of the species’ reactions to the conspecific call playbacks–that the species is more wary of conspecific calls, since they originate from more “trusted” sources. A combination of both the avian and terrestrial species elicited an immediate reaction that was not statistically different from the reaction observed after exposure to the terrestrial mammal call or the bird alarm call or the bird alarm call. These results give more insight into the topic of interspecific and intraspecific communication and the idea of species participating in a sort of alert “eavesdropping.”

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