ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2017
Living in the dark does not mean a blind life: bird and mammal visual communication in dim light.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Complexity of Communication in Mammals: From Social and Emotional Mechanisms to Human Influence and Multimodal Applications.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Viewing conditions predict evolutionary diversity in avian plumage colour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Nocturnal camouflage through background matching against moonlight.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- All-a-glow: spectral characteristics confirm widespread fluorescence for mammals.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Evolutionary predictors of the specific colors of birds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Photoluminescence in mammal fur: 111 years of research.Journal of mammalogy · 2023Article
- Interactive effects of rising temperatures and urbanisation on birds across different climate zones: A mechanistic perspective.Global change biology · 2023Review
- Article
- Sex-, age-, and time-specific visual communication in brown bears.Journal of mammalogy · 2023Article
- How woodcocks produce the most brilliant white plumage patches among the birds.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- Symbiotic microbiota and odor ensure mating in time for giant pandas.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Visual marking in mammals first proved by manipulations of brown bear tree debarking.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Rubbing behavior of European brown bears: factors affecting rub tree selectivity and density.Journal of mammalogy · 2021Article
- Article
- Plumage iridescence is associated with distinct feather microbiota in a tropical passerine.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Fearsome white owls.Nature ecology & evolution · 2019Article
- Differential fitness effects of moonlight on plumage colour morphs in barn owls.Nature ecology & evolution · 2019Article
- Melanism evolution in the cat family is influenced by intraspecific communication under low visibility.PloS one · 2019Article
- Vision in dim light: highlights and challenges.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
For many years, it was believed that bird and mammal communication 'in the dark of the night' relied exclusively on vocal and chemical signalling. However, in recent decades, several case studies have conveyed the idea that the nocturnal world is rich in visual information. Clearly, a visual signal needs a source of light to work, but diurnal light (twilight included, i.e. any light directly dependent on the sun) is not the only source of luminosity on this planet. Actually, moonlight represents a powerful source of illumination that cannot be neglected from the perspective of visual communication. White patches of feathers and fur on a dark background have the potential to be used to communicate with conspecifics and heterospecifics in dim light across different contexts and for a variety of reasons. Here: (i) we review current knowledge on visual signalling in crepuscular and nocturnal birds and mammals; and (ii) we also present some possible cases of birds and mammals that, due to the characteristics of their feather and fur coloration pattern, might use visual signals in dim light. Visual signalling in nocturnal animals is still an emerging field and, to date, it has received less attention than many other means of communication, including visual communication under daylight. For this reason, many questions remain unanswered and, sometimes, even unasked.This article is part of the themed issue 'Vision in dim light'.
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