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Templeton, J.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
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Title |
Public information cues affect the scrounging decisions of starlings |
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1995 |
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49 |
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6 |
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1617-1626 |
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The foraging decisions that individuals make within groups should depend on the information available to them. An aviary experiment was conducted to examine whether a starling's, Sturnus vulgaris, decisions either to approach and feed from (scrounge) or to avoid the patches exploited by a partner bird are influenced by the information the partner provides. Both the type of information a subject could recognize and the point at which this information became available during the partner's exploitation of a patch were manipulaed. Information concerning the quality of a patch was available in the form of a concealed colour cue and from the behaviour of the partner bird. The foraging environment was manipulated such that colour cues were either present or absent, and provided either correct or incorrect information concerning the presence of food. When cues corresponded with past foraging experience, test subjects responded selectively and profitably to the patch exploitations of the partner; they scrounged from a higher proportion of profitable patches than control birds, which lacked the ability to recognize colour cues. Test subjects also arrived more quickly at profitable patches that the partner bird discovered than did control birds; and consequently, were able to obtain more food at each food patch scrounged. Finally, test subjects avoided scrounging when the partner discovered empty patches and thus saved foraging time. Responding selectively to public information, therefore, allows an individual to compete more effectively for resources within a foraging group. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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2190 |
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Author |
Templeton, J.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
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Title |
Vicarious sampling: the use of personal and public information by starlings foraging in a simple patchy environment |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
1996 |
Publication |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. |
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38 |
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2 |
Pages |
105-114 |
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Keywords |
Social foraging ? Patch sampling ? Public information ? Sturnidae |
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Group foragers may be able to assess patch quality more efficiently by paying attention to the sampling activities of conspecifics foraging in the same patch. In a previous field experiment, we showed that starlings foraging on patches of hidden food could use the successful foraging activities of others to help them assess patch quality. In order to determine whether a starling could also use another individual's lack of foraging success to assess and depart from empty patches more quickly, we carried out two experimental studies which compared the behaviour of captive starlings sampling artificial patches both when alone and when in pairs. Solitary starlings were first trained to assess patch quality in our experimental two-patch system, and were then tested on an empty patch both alone and with two types of partner bird. One partner sampled very few holes and thus provided a low amount of public information; the other sampled numerous holes and thus provided a high amount of public information. In experiment 1, we found no evidence of vicarious sampling. Subjects sampled a similar number of empty holes when alone as when with the low and high information partners; thus they continued to rely on their own personal information to make their patch departure decisions. In experiment 2, we modified the experimental patches, increasing the ease with which a bird could watch another's sampling activities, and increasing the difficulty of acquiring accurate personal sampling information. This time, subjects apparently did use public information, sampling fewer empty holes before departure when with the high-information partner than when with the low-information partner, and sampling fewer holes when with the low-information partner than when alone. We suggest that the degree to which personal and public information are used is likely to depend both on a forager's ability to remember where it has already sampled and on the type of environment in which foraging takes place. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4198 |
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Nocera, J.J.; Forbes, G.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
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Title |
Inadvertent social information in breeding site selection of natal dispersing birds |
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Journal Article |
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2006 |
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Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc Biol Sci |
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273 |
Issue |
1584 |
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349-355 |
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Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Breeding; *Environment; Female; Logistic Models; Male; Songbirds/growth & development/*physiology |
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Several species use the number of young produced as public information (PI) to assess breeding site quality. PI is inaccessible for synchronously breeding birds because nests are empty by the time the young can collect this information. We investigate if location cues are the next best source of inadvertent social information (ISI) used by young prospectors during breeding site choice. We experimentally deployed ISI as decoys and song playbacks of breeding males in suitable and sub-optimal habitats during pre- and post-breeding periods, and monitored territory establishment during the subsequent breeding season for a social, bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), and a more solitary species, Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow (Ammodramus nelsoni). The sparrows did not respond to treatments, but bobolinks responded strongly to post-breeding location cues, irrespective of habitat quality. The following year, 17/20 sub-optimal plots to which bobolink males were recruited were defended for at least two weeks, indicating that song heard the previous year could exert a “carry-over attraction” effect on conspecifics the following year. Sixteen recruited males were natal dispersers, as expected when animals have little opportunity to directly sample their natal habitat quality. We suggest that differences in breeding synchronicity may induce an equivalent clinal distribution of ISI use. |
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Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Bag Service #45111, Fredericton, NB E3B 6E1, Canada. j.nocera@unb.ca |
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0962-8452 |
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PMID:16543178 |
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2129 |
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Author |
Mottley, K.; Giraldeau, L.A. |
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Title |
Experimental evidence that group foragers can converge on predicted producer-scrounger equilibria |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2000 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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60 |
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3 |
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341-350 |
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When foraging together, animals are often observed to feed from food discoveries of others. The producer-scrounger (PS) game predicts how frequently this phenomenon of food parasitism should occur. The game assumes: (1) at any moment all individuals can unambiguously be categorized as either playing producer (searching for undiscovered food resources) or scrounger (searching for exploitation opportunities), and (2) the payoffs received from the scrounger tactic are negatively frequency dependent; a scrounger does better than a producer when the scrounger tactic is rare, but worse when it is common. No study to date has shown that the payoffs of producer and scrounger conform to the game's assumptions or that groups of foragers reach the predicted stable equilibrium frequency (SEF) of scrounger, whereby both tactics obtain the same payoff. The current study of three captive flocks of spice finches, Lonchura punctulata, provides the first test of the PS game using an apparatus in which both assumptions of the PS game are met. The payoffs to the scrounger, measured as feeding rate (seeds/s), were highly negatively frequency dependent on the frequency of scrounger. The feeding rate for scrounger declined linearly while the rate for producer either declined only slightly or not at all with increasing scrounger frequency. When given the opportunity to alternate between tactics, the birds changed their use of each, such that the group converged on the predicted SEF of scrounger after 5-8 days of testing. Individuals in this study, therefore, demonstrated sufficient plasticity in tactic use such that the flock foraged at the SEF of scrounger. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. |
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Department of Biology, Concordia University |
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0003-3472 |
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PMID:11007643 |
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2136 |
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Author |
Livoreil, B.; Giraldeau, L. |
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Title |
Patch departure decisions by spice finches foraging singly or in groups |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
1997 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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54 |
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4 |
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967-977 |
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The marginal value theorem predicts that when resources are clumped in space, a forager can maximize its rate of intake by deciding to leave a patch when its current feeding rate falls below the average for the habitat. A group version of the model predicts that when rate-maximizing group members share a patch, they should leave sooner, and each with less gain, than single animals exploiting the same patch. We tested these predictions in the laboratory by measuring patch departure decisions of spice finches, Lonchura punctulataexploiting food patches alone or in groups of three under two habitats that require different travel times. As predicted, group members left the patch sooner and with fewer seeds than single foragers. Unlike the model's assumptions, however, birds did not share the patch equally, and their exploitation curves could not be simply derived from those of single foragers. Grouping decreased the effect of travel time on patch exploitation. Moreover, within each group the bird expected to leave first delayed its departure although it collected fewer seeds than the others. This delayed departure could aim to maintain group membership. We noted an increased variability in seed number collected by group members compared with single foragers, which could be a cost of group foraging.Copyright 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour1997The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour |
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Department of Biology, Concordia University |
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0003-3472 |
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PMID:9344448 |
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2138 |
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Author |
Lefebvre, L.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
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Title |
Is social learning an adaptive specialisation? |
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Book Chapter |
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Year |
1996 |
Publication |
Social learning in animals: The root of culture |
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107-128 |
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Academic Press. |
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San Diego |
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Heyes, C. M. ;B. G. Galef B. G..Jr. |
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978-0122739651 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4415 |
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Giraldeau, L.A.; Beauchamp, G. |
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Title |
Food exploitation: searching for the optimal joining policy |
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Journal Article |
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1999 |
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Trends In Ecology And Evolution |
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14 |
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3 |
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102-106 |
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Commonly invoked foraging advantages of group membership include increased mean food intake rates and/or reduced variance in foraging success. These foraging advantages rely on the occurrence of 'joining': feeding from food discovered or captured by others. Joining occurs in most social species but the assumptions underlying its analysis have been clarified only recently, giving rise to two classes of model: information-sharing and producer-scrounger models. Recent experimental evidence suggests that joining in ground-feeding birds might be best analysed as a producer-scrounger game, with some intriguing consequences for the spatial distribution of foragers and patch exploitation. |
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Dept of Biology, Concordia University, 1455 Ouest Blvd de Maisonneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8 |
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0169-5347 |
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PMID:10322509 |
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2137 |
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Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L.; Morand-Ferron, J. |
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Can a restrictive definition lead to biases and tautologies? |
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Journal Article |
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2007 |
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences |
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Behav. Brain Sci. |
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30 |
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4 |
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411-412 |
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We argue that the operational definition proposed by Ramsey et al. does not represent a significant improvement for students of innovation, because it is so restrictive that it might actually prevent the testing of hypotheses on the relationships between innovation, ecology, evolution, culture, and intelligence. To avoid tautological thinking, we need to use an operational definition that is taxonomically unbiased and neutral with respect to the hypotheses to be tested. |
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Cambridge University Press |
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2007/12/17 |
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0140-525x |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6533 |
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Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. |
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Title |
Scrounging prevents cultural transmission of food-finding behaviour in pigeons |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
1987 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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35 |
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2 |
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387-394 |
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Living in groups should promote the cultural transmission of a novel behaviour because opportunities for observing knowledgeable individuals are likely to be more numerous in this condition. However, in this study pigeons who shared the food discoveries of others (scroungers) did not learn the food-finding technique used by the discoverers (producers). Individually-caged pigeons prevented from scrounging easily learned the technique from a conspecific tutor. When caged pigeons obtained food from the tutor's performance, most naïve observers failed to learn. In a flock, scroungers selectively followed producers. In individual cages, scrounging during the tutor's demonstration was equivalent to getting no demonstration at all. This effect of scrounging did not interfere with subsequent acquisition of the food-finding behaviour when scrounging was no longer possible. |
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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5265 |
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Author |
Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. |
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Title |
Exchangeable producer and scrounger roles in a captive flock of feral pigeons: a case for the skill pool effect |
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Journal Article |
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1986 |
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Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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34 |
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3 |
Pages |
797-803 |
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We investigated the foraging producer-scrounger system of a captive flock of feral pigeons (Columba livia) by monitoring the number of food patches each individual produced. In one experiment, three different patch types were tested on the whole flock while, in a second, flock composition was varied for one patch type. In all cases we found non-uniform distributions of the number of patches produced per individual, which suggests the existence of producer and scrounger roles. This result could not be explained by either dominance or variability in individual learning ability. Individuals switched roles in response to changes both in food patch type and flock composition. These results are discussed in light of the skill pool hypothesis, which suggests that, in a group, different foraging specialists will profit by parasitizing each other's food discoveries. |
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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6012 |
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