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Author Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Scrounging prevents cultural transmission of food-finding behaviour in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year 1987 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 35 Issue 2 Pages (up) 387-394  
  Keywords  
  Abstract 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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  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5265  
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Author Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L.; Morand-Ferron, J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Can a restrictive definition lead to biases and tautologies? Type Journal Article
  Year 2007 Publication Behavioral and Brain Sciences Abbreviated Journal Behav. Brain Sci.  
  Volume 30 Issue 4 Pages (up) 411-412  
  Keywords  
  Abstract 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.  
  Address  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Cambridge University Press Place of Publication Editor  
  Language Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition 2007/12/17  
  ISSN 0140-525x ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6533  
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Author Ducatez, S.; Audet, J.N.; Lefebvre, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Independent appearance of an innovative feeding behaviour in Antillean bullfinches Type Journal Article
  Year 2013 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 16 Issue 3 Pages (up) 525-529  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Behavioural innovations have been largely documented in birds and are thought to provide advantages in changing environments. However, the mechanisms by which behavioural innovations spread remain poorly known. Two major mechanisms are supposed to play a fundamental role: innovation diffusion by social learning and independent appearance of the same innovation in different individuals. Direct evidence for the independent emergence of the same innovation in different individuals is, however, lacking. Here, we show that a highly localized behavioural innovation previously observed in 2000 in Barbados, the opening of sugar packets by Loxigilla barbadensis bullfinches, persisted more than a decade later and had spread to a limited area around the initial site. More importantly, we found that the same innovation appeared independently in other, more distant, locations on the same island. On the island of St-Lucia, 145 km from Barbados, we also found that the sister species of the Barbados bullfinch, the Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis developed the same innovation independently. Finally, we found that a third species, the Bananaquit Coereba flaveola, exploited the bullfinches’ technical innovation to benefit from this new food source. Overall, our observations provide the first direct evidence of the independent emergence of the same behavioural innovation in different individuals of the same species, but also in different species subjected to similar anthropogenic food availability.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ducatez2013 Serial 5934  
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Author Lefebvre, L.; Whittle, P.; Lascaris, E.; Finkelstein, A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Feeding innovations and forebrain size in birds Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Animal Behaviour. Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 53 Issue 3 Pages (up) 549-560  
  Keywords  
  Abstract The links between ecology, behavioural plasticity and brain size are often tested via the comparative method. Given the problems in interpretating comparative tests of learning and cognition, however, alternative measures of plasticity need to be developed. From the short notes section of nine ornithological journals, two separate, exhaustive data sets have been collated on opportunistic foraging innovations in birds of North America (1973-1993;N=196) and the British Isles (1983-1993;N=126). Both the absolute and relative frequencies (corrected for species number per order) of innovations differ between bird orders in a similar fashion in the two geographical zones. Absolute and relative frequency of innovations per order are also related to two measures of relative forebrain size in the two zones. The study confirms predicted trends linking opportunism, brain size and rate of structural evolution. It also suggests that innovation rate in the field may be a useful measure of behavioural plasticity.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4740  
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Author Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Exchangeable producer and scrounger roles in a captive flock of feral pigeons: a case for the skill pool effect Type Journal Article
  Year 1986 Publication Animal Behaviour Abbreviated Journal Anim. Behav.  
  Volume 34 Issue 3 Pages (up) 797-803  
  Keywords  
  Abstract 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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  ISSN 0003-3472 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6012  
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Author Sol, D.; Duncan, R.P.; Blackburn, T.M.; Cassey, P.; Lefebvre, L. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 102 Issue 15 Pages (up) 5460-5465  
  Keywords  
  Abstract The widely held hypothesis that enlarged brains have evolved as an adaptation to cope with novel or altered environmental conditions lacks firm empirical support. Here, we test this hypothesis for a major animal group (birds) by examining whether large-brained species show higher survival than small-brained species when introduced to nonnative locations. Using a global database documenting the outcome of >600 introduction events, we confirm that avian species with larger brains, relative to their body mass, tend to be more successful at establishing themselves in novel environments. Moreover, we provide evidence that larger brains help birds respond to novel conditions by enhancing their innovation propensity rather than indirectly through noncognitive mechanisms. These findings provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that enlarged brains function, and hence may have evolved, to deal with changes in the environment.  
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  Notes 10.1073/pnas.0408145102 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4739  
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