Possibly, these mechanisms have been studied but I have not yet come across any particular publications.
There are many animals that listen in on alarm calls by other species signalling of potential predator presence in the area.
Birds are universal alarm raisers and their alarms notify, e.g., red squirrels.
In temperate Europe, the predator guild is comparatively limited and many species share the same predators.
For example, pine martens are a danger to most smaller birds and also to red squirrels and other smaller mammals.
Thus, it might not be as important for species like red squirrels or other small rodents to react to alarm calls by birds of a particular species.
However, I thought there could be systems where the predation is more complex and more specialized.
Therefore, I was wondering if a species might learn to listen in on alarm calls by other species that share the same predator(s).
And I am wondering mostly on such symbiosis between species that are genetically more distant.
I.e., it might be possible that two species of the same genus share a predator and their alarm calls might even sound similar.
However, I am curious about listening in on alarm calls of birds by mammals or of mammals by birds or of one distant species by another distant species of the same class or order.
For example, otters would rather be a threat to riparian waterfowl species compared to arboreal species that are preyed upon by, e.g., pine marten.
Therefore, waterbird alarm calls might carry important messages to riparian rodents and not to, e.g., the aforementioned red squirrels that may be more interested in arboreal and predominantly terrestrial predators.
Thus, it might be interesting to learn if semi-aquatic, riparian species threatened by otter predation react to one another’s alarm calls more intensely than to those produced by tree birds.
Also, it might pay to distinguish between alarm calls of ground-nesting birds vs. canopy-nesting birds because it is indicative of where the danger can be expected and the animal can then decide on action if the threat is close to its own location (on the ground or in the canopy).
I have observed some potential cooperation between roe deer barks and beaver tail slaps around the river area.
For example, it might be possible that roe deer listen in on beaver tail slapping if the deer are themselves nearby the riparian area or if their fawns are close to the water, or if they had planned on heading there.
While they might ignore the distant sound if no interest lies on the riparian area.
I hope I find some publications dedicated to this issue if they are out there already.
Notes by Ieva 