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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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Year |
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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Volume |
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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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.; 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 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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35 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
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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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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Year |
1986 |
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Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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34 |
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3 |
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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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Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L.; Morand-Ferron, J. |
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Title |
Can a restrictive definition lead to biases and tautologies? |
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Journal Article |
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2007 |
Publication |
Behavioral and Brain Sciences |
Abbreviated Journal |
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.; 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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Year |
1999 |
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Trends In Ecology And Evolution |
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14 |
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3 |
Pages |
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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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 |
Publication |
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 |
Galef BG, J.; Giraldeau, L.A. |
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Title |
Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2001 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
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61 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
3-15 |
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We summarize 20 years of empirical and theoretical research on causes and functions of social influences on foraging by animals. We consider separately studies of social influence on when, where, what and how to eat. Implicit in discussion of the majority of studies is our assumption that social influences on foraging reflect a biasing of individual learning processes by social stimuli rather than action of independent social-learning mechanisms. Our review of theoretical approaches suggests that the majority of formally derived hypotheses concerning functions of social influence on foraging have not yet been tested adequately and many models are in need of further refinement. We also consider the importance to the future of the field of integrating 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches to the study of social learning. Copyright 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. |
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Department of Psychology, McMaster University |
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0003-3472 |
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PMID:11170692 |
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2135 |
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Author |
Gauvin, S.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
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Title |
Nutmeg mannikins ( Lonchura punctulata) reduce their feeding rates in response to simulated competition |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2004 |
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Oecologia |
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Oecologia |
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139 |
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1 |
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150-156 |
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Animals; *Feeding Behavior; Population Density; *Social Behavior; *Songbirds |
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Group feeding animals experience a number of competitive foraging costs that may result in a lowered feeding rate. It is important to distinguish between reductions in feeding rates that are caused by reduced food availability and physical interactions among foragers from those caused by the mere presence of foraging companions that may be self-imposed in order to obtain some benefit of group membership. Starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris) reduce their feeding rates when in the company of simulated competitors located in an adjacent cage that cannot affect the food availability or interact with the forager. In the present study, we investigate whether the presence of simulated competitors in another species of passerine, nutmeg mannikins ( Lonchura punctulata), can result in self-imposed reductions in feeding rates. When feeding in the company of simulated competitors, mannikins spent more non-foraging time near them, fed more slowly, reduced travel times between patches, reduced their scanning time and pecked more slowly. These results provide evidence that simulated competitors induce a reduction in pecking rate: behavioural interference. These self-imposed responses to competitors may have resulted from attempts to remain close to the non-feeding companions. Such self-imposed reductions in feeding rates may be a widespread yet generally unrecognised foraging cost to group feeding individuals. |
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Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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0029-8549 |
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PMID:14722748 |
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2133 |
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