Cuckoo folklore and human well-being: Cuckoo calls predict how long farmers live
2017
Møller, A. P. (Anders Pape) | Morelli, Federico | Tryjanowski, Piotr
The number of repeats in cuckoo Cuculus canorus calls (syllables) is widely believed across large parts of Europe to reflect longevity in the person who counts the calls. Here we test this unlikely hypothesis by using information on longevity of farmers, farm size and biodiversity, the presence of cuckoos and the number of syllables in calls of cuckoos in northern Denmark. We show that longevity of farmers is related to farm size and number of syllables, which in turn are related to biodiversity, and that biodiversity as reflected by breeding bird species richness predicts presence of cuckoos and in turn the number of syllables. This implies that longevity of farmers is directly and indirectly related to farm size and in turn to the number of syllables. This suggests that cuckoo calls may indeed reflect longevity of humans in the neighborhood as revealed by longevity of farmers. In addition, this study of cuckoo calls links folklore to conservation.
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