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Cram DL, Lloyd-Jones DJ, van der Wal JEM, Lund J, Buanachique IO, Muamedi M, Nanguar CI, Ngovene A, Raveh S, Boner W, Spottiswoode CN. Guides and cheats: producer-scrounger dynamics in the human-honeyguide mutualism. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20232024. [PMID: 37935365 PMCID: PMC10645085 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Foraging animals commonly choose whether to find new food (as 'producers') or scavenge from others (as 'scroungers'), and this decision has ecological and evolutionary consequences. Understanding these tactic decisions is particularly vital for naturally occurring producer-scrounger systems of economic importance, because they determine the system's productivity and resilience. Here, we investigate how individuals' traits predict tactic decisions, and the consistency and pay-offs of these decisions, in the remarkable mutualism between humans (Homo sapiens) and greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator). Honeyguides can either guide people to bees' nests and eat the resulting beeswax (producing), or scavenge beeswax (scrounging). Our results suggest that honeyguides flexibly switched tactics, and that guiding yielded greater access to the beeswax. Birds with longer tarsi scrounged more, perhaps because they are more competitive. The lightest females rarely guided, possibly to avoid aggression, or because genetic matrilines may affect female body mass and behaviour in this species. Overall, aspects of this producer-scrounger system probably increase the productivity and resilience of the associated human-honeyguide mutualism, because the pay-offs incentivize producing, and tactic-switching increases the pool of potential producers. Broadly, our findings suggest that even where tactic-switching is prevalent and producing yields greater pay-offs, certain phenotypes may be predisposed to one tactic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominic L. Cram
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - David J. Lloyd-Jones
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Jessica E. M. van der Wal
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Jess Lund
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EJ, UK
| | | | | | | | - Antonio Ngovene
- EO Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
| | - Shirley Raveh
- School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Graham Kerr Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
| | - Winnie Boner
- School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Graham Kerr Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
| | - Claire N. Spottiswoode
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EJ, UK
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
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2
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Wright J, Haaland TR, Dingemanse NJ, Westneat DF. A reaction norm framework for the evolution of learning: how cumulative experience shapes phenotypic plasticity. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2022; 97:1999-2021. [PMID: 35790067 PMCID: PMC9543233 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 05/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Learning is a familiar process to most people, but it currently lacks a fully developed theoretical position within evolutionary biology. Learning (memory and forgetting) involves adjustments in behaviour in response to cumulative sequences of prior experiences or exposures to environmental cues. We therefore suggest that all forms of learning (and some similar biological phenomena in development, aging, acquired immunity and acclimation) can usefully be viewed as special cases of phenotypic plasticity, and formally modelled by expanding the concept of reaction norms to include additional environmental dimensions quantifying sequences of cumulative experience (learning) and the time delays between events (forgetting). Memory therefore represents just one of a number of different internal neurological, physiological, hormonal and anatomical ‘states’ that mediate the carry‐over effects of cumulative environmental experiences on phenotypes across different time periods. The mathematical and graphical conceptualisation of learning as plasticity within a reaction norm framework can easily accommodate a range of different ecological scenarios, closely linking statistical estimates with biological processes. Learning and non‐learning plasticity interact whenever cumulative prior experience causes a modification in the reaction norm (a) elevation [mean phenotype], (b) slope [responsiveness], (c) environmental estimate error [informational memory] and/or (d) phenotypic precision [skill acquisition]. Innovation and learning new contingencies in novel (laboratory) environments can also be accommodated within this approach. A common reaction norm approach should thus encourage productive cross‐fertilisation of ideas between traditional studies of learning and phenotypic plasticity. As an example, we model the evolution of plasticity with and without learning under different levels of environmental estimation error to show how learning works as a specific adaptation promoting phenotypic plasticity in temporally autocorrelated environments. Our reaction norm framework for learning and analogous biological processes provides a conceptual and mathematical structure aimed at usefully stimulating future theoretical and empirical investigations into the evolution of plasticity across a wider range of ecological contexts, while providing new interdisciplinary connections regarding learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Wright
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD), Department of Biology Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) N‐7491 Trondheim Norway
| | - Thomas R. Haaland
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD), Department of Biology Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) N‐7491 Trondheim Norway
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies University of Zürich Winterthurerstrasse 190 CH‐8057 Zürich Switzerland
| | - Niels J. Dingemanse
- Behavioural Ecology, Department of Biology Ludwig‐Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) 82152 Planegg‐Martinsried Germany
| | - David F. Westneat
- Department of Biology University of Kentucky 101 Morgan Building Lexington KY 40506‐0225 USA
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Sacramento TS, Bicca-Marques JC. Scrounging marmosets eat more when the finder's share is low without changing their searching effort. Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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4
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Borofsky TM, Feldman MW. Static environments with limited resources select for multiple foraging strategies rather than conformity. ECOL MONOGR 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Talia M. Borofsky
- Department of Biology Stanford University 371 Jane Stanford Way Stanford California 94305 USA
| | - Marcus W. Feldman
- Department of Biology Stanford University 371 Jane Stanford Way Stanford California 94305 USA
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5
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Alfaro L, Cabrera R. Can the setup of a patch modulate finder's advantage? Behav Processes 2021; 192:104488. [PMID: 34437980 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2020] [Revised: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
According to the Rate Maximization Model the finder's advantage is an environmental factor modulating social foraging strategies. One factor that can influence the finder's advantage is the patches' setup. We analyzed the strategies of Wistar rats foraging in groups n = 4 in a 4 × 3 array of deposits where only four of them were baited (patches) with different configurations on each trial. Specifically, the goal was to assess whether the finder's advantage varied according to the distribution (Square vs. Zig-zag) and distance (Small vs. Large) between patches. Foraging responses were classified as production (seeking for food) or scrounging (tracking conspecifics) to calculate the frequency of use of each strategy in each group and estimate the induced finder's advantage in each situation. In patch-setups with short distances, production was more common and the finder's advantage higher. Results can be explained by the combined effect of a local enhancing and simultaneous patch exploitation on small setups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Alfaro
- Universidad De Guadalajara (CUValles), Mexico
| | - Rosalva Cabrera
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México (FES Iztacala), Mexico.
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6
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Tuliozi B, Camerlenghi E, Griggio M. Dyadic leader–follower dynamics change across situations in captive house sparrows. Behav Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Individuals can behave as either leaders or followers in many taxa of collectively moving animals. Leaders initiate movements and may incur predation risks, while followers are thought to be more risk-averse. As a group encounters different challenges and ecological situations, individuals in the group may change their social role. We investigated leader and follower roles using dyads of captive house sparrow (Passer domesticus) during both exploration of a novel environment and a simulation of predator attack. During the exploration of a novel environment, individuals behaved consistently either as leaders or followers. However, in the simulated attack tests, individuals in the dyads switched their roles, with “followers” leading the escape flights and “leaders” following them. Our study provides evidence of 1) consistent differences between individuals in behavior during social escape and 2) a relationship between social roles across different situations. We suggest that such relationship hinges on individual risk-taking tendencies, which manifest through different social roles across different ecological situations. We further speculate that risk-taking individuals might gain benefits by following risk-averse individuals during an escape flight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beniamino Tuliozi
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via Ugo Bassi 58/B, I-35131 Padova,Italy
| | - Ettore Camerlenghi
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, 25 Rainforest Walk, Clayton, Victoria,Australia
| | - Matteo Griggio
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via Ugo Bassi 58/B, I-35131 Padova,Italy
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7
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Alfaro L, Cabrera R. Effect of group size on producer-scrounger strategies of Wistar rats. Behav Processes 2020; 182:104280. [PMID: 33188845 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Revised: 09/29/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
In a collective foraging situation, we assessed the distribution of search responses of Wistar rats relative to the size of the group. For both, small and large groups, the number of production opportunities per capita was equal. Foraging strategies were classified as either production (opening gates with food) or scrounging (following conspecifics). Small groups showed a higher proportion of producers than large groups and required less time to deplete the food. The proportion of producing and scrounging responses yields to equilibrium between their payoffs. Producing and scrounging were highly correlated with different prior responses. Also, the relative frequency of producing and scrounging associated activities correlated with the time spent consuming food procured by each activity. It is possible that a simple outcome-strategy feedback mechanism mediates the choice of prior activities and procurement responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Alfaro
- Universidad De Guadalajara (Cuvalles), Mexico
| | - Rosalva Cabrera
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Fes Iztacala), Mexico.
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8
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Barou Dagues M, Hall CL, Giraldeau LA. Individual differences in learning ability are negatively linked to behavioural plasticity in a frequency-dependent game. Anim Behav 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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9
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Webster MM, Chouinard-Thuly L, Herczeg G, Kitano J, Riley R, Rogers S, Shapiro MD, Shikano T, Laland KN. A four-questions perspective on public information use in sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae). ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181735. [PMID: 30891285 PMCID: PMC6408396 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2018] [Accepted: 01/08/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Whether learning primarily reflects general processes or species-specific challenges is a long-standing matter of dispute. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of public information use (PI-use) in sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae). PI-use is a form of social learning by which animals are able to assess the relative quality of resources, here prey patches, by observing the behaviour of others. PI-use was highly specific with only Pungitius and their closest relative Culaea inconstans showing evidence of PI-use. We saw no effects of ontogenetic experience upon PI-use in Pungitius pungitius. Experiments with live demonstrators and animated fish revealed that heightened activity and feeding strikes by foraging conspecifics are important cues in the transmission of PI. Finally, PI-use was the only form of learning in which P. pungitius and another stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus differed. PI-use in sticklebacks is species-specific and may represent an 'ecological specialization' for social foraging. Whether this reflects selection on perception, attentional or cognitive processes remains to be determined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mike M. Webster
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TF, UK
| | - Laura Chouinard-Thuly
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TF, UK
- Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Docteur Penfield, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1
| | - Gabor Herczeg
- Ecological Genetics Research Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
| | - Jun Kitano
- Division of Ecological Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan
| | - Riva Riley
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TF, UK
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Sean Rogers
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Calgary, Canada
| | - Michael D. Shapiro
- Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Takahito Shikano
- Ecological Genetics Research Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kevin N. Laland
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TF, UK
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10
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11
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Langley EJG, van Horik JO, Whiteside MA, Madden JR. Individuals in larger groups are more successful on spatial discrimination tasks. Anim Behav 2018; 142:87-93. [PMID: 30147111 PMCID: PMC6107781 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.05.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
To understand how natural selection may act on cognitive processes, it is necessary to reliably determine interindividual variation in cognitive abilities. However, an individual's performance in a cognitive test may be influenced by the social environment. The social environment explains variation between species in cognitive performances, with species that live in larger groups purportedly demonstrating more advanced cognitive abilities. It also explains variation in cognitive performances within species, with larger groups more likely to solve novel problems than smaller groups. Surprisingly, an effect of group size on individual variation in cognitive performance has rarely been investigated and much of our knowledge stems from impaired performance of individuals reared in isolation. Using a within-subjects design we assayed individual learning performance of adult female pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, while housed in groups of three and five. Individuals experienced the group sizes in a different order, but were presented with two spatial discrimination tasks, each with a distinct cue set, in a fixed order. We found that across both tasks individuals housed in the large groups had higher levels of success than individuals housed in the small groups. Individuals had higher levels of success on their second than their first task, irrespective of group size. We suggest that the expression of individual learning performance is responsive to the current social environment but the mechanisms underpinning this relationship require further investigation. Our study demonstrates that it is important to account for an individual's social environment when attempting to characterize cognitive capacities. It also demonstrates the flexibility of an individual's cognitive performance depending on the social context. Female pheasants' cognitive performance is enhanced when in larger groups. Learning performance is responsive to the current social environment. This has implications for determining individual variation in cognitive abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellis J G Langley
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K
| | - Jayden O van Horik
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K
| | - Mark A Whiteside
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K
| | - Joah R Madden
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, U.K
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12
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Four eyes match better than two: Sharing of precise patch-use time among socially foraging domestic chicks. Behav Processes 2017; 140:127-132. [PMID: 28473251 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.04.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2017] [Revised: 04/25/2017] [Accepted: 04/29/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
To examine how resource competition contributes to patch-use behaviour, we examined domestic chicks foraging in an I-shaped maze equipped with two terminal feeders. In a variable interval schedule, one feeder supplied grains three times more frequently than the other, and the sides were reversed midway through the experiment. The maze was partitioned into two lanes by a transparent wall, so that chicks fictitiously competed without actual interference. Stay time at feeders was compared among three groups. The "single" group contained control chicks; the "pair" group comprised the pairs of chicks tested in the fictitious competition; "mirror" included single chicks accompanied by their respective mirror images. Both "pair" and "mirror" chicks showed facilitated running. In terms of the patch-use ratio, "pair" chicks showed precise matching at approximately 3:1 with significant mutual dependence, whereas "single" and "mirror" chicks showed a comparable under-matching. The facilitated running increased visits to feeders, but failed to predict the patch-use ratio of the subject. At the reversal, quick switching occurred similarly in all groups, but the "pair" chicks revealed a stronger memory-based matching. Perceived competition therefore contributes to precise matching and lasting memory of the better feeder, in a manner dissociated from socially facilitated food search.
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13
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Aplin LM, Morand-Ferron J. Stable producer-scrounger dynamics in wild birds: sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour. Proc Biol Sci 2017; 284:20162872. [PMID: 28404775 PMCID: PMC5394662 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2016] [Accepted: 03/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been extensive game-theoretic modelling of conditions leading to equilibria of producer-scrounger dichotomies in groups. However there is a surprising paucity of experimental evidence in wild populations. Here, we examine producer-scrounger games in five subpopulations of birds feeding at a socially learnt foraging task. Over four weeks, a bimodal distribution of producers and scroungers emerged in all areas, with pronounced and consistent individual tactic specialization persisting over 3 years. Tactics were unrelated to exploratory personality, but correlated with latency to contact and learn the foraging task, with the late arrivers and slower learners more likely to adopt the scrounging role. Additionally, the social environment was also important: at the broad scale, larger subpopulations with a higher social density contained proportionally more scroungers, while within subpopulations scroungers tended to be central in the social network and be observed in larger foraging flocks. This study thus provides a rare example of a stable, dimorphic distribution of producer-scrounger tactics in a wild population. It further gives support across multiple scales for a major prediction of social foraging theory; that the frequency of scroungers increases with group size.
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Affiliation(s)
- L M Aplin
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - J Morand-Ferron
- Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada K1N 6N5
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14
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Lee YF, Kuo YM, Chu WC. Energy state affects exploratory behavior of tree sparrows in a group context under differential food-patch distributions. Front Zool 2016; 13:48. [PMID: 27777601 PMCID: PMC5073449 DOI: 10.1186/s12983-016-0180-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2016] [Accepted: 10/12/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND When facing a novel situation, animals can retreat or leave to avoid risks, but will miss potential resources and opportunities. Alternatively they may reduce environmental uncertainty by exploration, while risking no energy rewards and exposure to hazards, and use the information retrieved for subsequent decision making. When exploring, however, animals may adopt different tactics according to individual states. RESULTS We tested that energy states will affect exploratory behavior by experimenting with wild-caught untrained Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus) in fasted or fed states exploring in a novel space with hidden food supply in different patch distribution patterns. Our data revealed that fasted sparrows risked being earlier explorers more often, initiated more exploratory bouts before patches were found, and stayed longer on the ground under both patch patterns. Fasted sparrows discovered more patches and consumed more food than fed sparrows in dispersed, but not necessary so in clumped, patch patterns; whereas fed birds also increased patch finding to a certain level in dispersed patterns. Sparrows of both energy states, however, did not differ in feeding rates in either patch pattern. CONCLUSIONS Exploratory behavior of tree sparrows is state-dependent, which supports our prediction that birds with an energy shortage will be risk-prone and explore more readily. Our study also indicates a game nature of tree sparrow exploratory behavior in a group context when explorers are in different energy states and are exposed to different patch distributions. Birds of lower energy state adopting an active exploring tactic may be favored by obtaining higher energy gains in dispersed patch patterns with lower patch richness. More satiated birds, however, achieved a similar feeding rate by lowered exposure time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya-Fu Lee
- Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 701 Taiwan
| | - Yen-Min Kuo
- Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 701 Taiwan
| | - Wen-Chen Chu
- Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 701 Taiwan
- Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute, Nantou, 552 Taiwan
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15
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Affiliation(s)
- E. Leadbeater
- School of Biological Sciences; Royal Holloway University of London; Surrey UK
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16
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Keynan O, Ridley AR, Lotem A. Social foraging strategies and acquisition of novel foraging skills in cooperatively breeding Arabian babblers. Behav Ecol 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/aru181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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17
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Afshar M, Giraldeau LA. A unified modelling approach for producer–scrounger games in complex ecological conditions. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.07.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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18
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Dubois F, Giraldeau LA. How the cascading effects of a single behavioral trait can generate personality. Ecol Evol 2014; 4:3038-45. [PMID: 25247061 PMCID: PMC4161177 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2014] [Revised: 06/03/2014] [Accepted: 06/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals from the same population generally vary in suites of correlated behavioral traits: personality. Yet, the strength of the behavioral correlations sometimes differs among populations and environmental conditions, suggesting that single underlying mechanisms, such as genetic constraints, cannot account for them. We propose, instead, that such suites of correlated traits may arise when a single key behavior has multiple cascading effects on several other behaviors through affecting the range of options available. For instance, an individual's shyness can constrain its habitat choice, which, in turn, could restrict the expression of other behavioral traits. We hypothesize that shy individuals should be especially restrained in their choice of habitat when the risk of predation is high, which then canalizes them into different behavioral options making them appear behaviorally distinct from bolder individuals. We test this idea using an individual-based simulation model. Our results show that individual differences in boldness can be sufficient, under high predation pressure, to generate behavioral correlations between boldness and both the tendency to aggregate and the propensity to use social information. Thus, our findings support the idea that some behavioral syndromes can be, at least to some extent, labile. Our model further predicts that such cascading effects should be more pronounced in populations with a long history of predation, which are expected to exhibit a low average boldness level, compared with predator-naïve populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frédérique Dubois
- Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal Montréal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Luc-Alain Giraldeau
- Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal Montréal, Quebec, Canada
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Ilan T, Katsnelson E, Motro U, Feldman MW, Lotem A. The role of beginner's luck in learning to prefer risky patches by socially foraging house sparrows. Behav Ecol 2013; 24:1398-1406. [PMID: 24137046 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/art079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2012] [Revised: 06/24/2013] [Accepted: 07/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although there has been extensive research on the evolution of individual decision making under risk (when facing variable outcomes), little is known on how the evolution of such decision-making mechanisms has been shaped by social learning and exploitation. We presented socially foraging house sparrows with a choice between scattered feeding wells in which millet seeds were hidden under 2 types of colored sand: green sand offering ~80 seeds with a probability of 0.1 (high risk-high reward) and yellow sand offering 1 seed with certainty (low risk-low reward). Although the expected benefit of choosing variable wells was 8 times higher than that of choosing constant wells, only some sparrows developed a preference for variable wells, whereas others developed a significant preference for constant wells. We found that this dichotomy could be explained by stochastic individual differences in sampling success during foraging, rather than by social foraging strategies (active searching vs. joining others). Moreover, preference for variable or constant wells was related to the sparrows' success during searching, rather than during joining others or when picking exposed seeds (i.e., they learn when actively searching in the sand). Finally, although for many sparrows learning resulted in an apparently maladaptive risk aversion, group living still allowed them to enjoy profitable variable wells by occasionally joining variable-preferring sparrows.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomer Ilan
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University , Tel-Aviv 69978 , Israel
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