| Records |
| Author |
Lefebvre, L.; Juretic, N.; Nicolakakis, N.; Timmermans, S. |
| Title |
Is the link between forebrain size and feeding innovations caused by confounding variables? A study of Australian and North American birds |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2001 |
Publication  |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
4 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
91-97 |
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| Abstract |
The short notes of ornithology journals feature new and unusual feeding behaviours, which, when systematically collated, could provide a quantitative estimate of behavioural flexibility in different bird groups. Previous studies suggest that taxonomic variation in the frequency of new behaviours (innovations) is correlated with variation in relative forebrain size. Recent work on primates shows, however, that observer bias can affect innovation frequency. We assess this possibility in birds via three estimates in North America and Australia: the number of full-length papers in academic journals, the frequency of photographs in birding magazines and a questionnaire on reporting bias given to ornithologists at a meeting. We also look at sampling effects due to single journal sources by doing a split-half analysis of our North American database (The Wilson Bulletin vs. six other journals) and adding three new Australian journals to the one we had used previously. In multiple regressions that also included species number per taxon, none of the potential biases could account for the correlation between forebrain size and innovation frequency. Species number was the best predictor of full-length paper frequency, which was the best predictor of photograph numbers. Ornithologists are not preferentially interested in innovative, large-brained taxa, suggesting that the correlation between innovations and neural substrate size is not a spurious effect of the biases examined here. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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3284 |
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Ducatez, S.; Audet, J.N.; Lefebvre, L. |
| 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 |
525-529 |
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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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1435-9456 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ducatez2013 |
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5934 |
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Ducatez, S.; Audet, J.-N.; Rodriguez, J.R.; Kayello, L.; Lefebvre, L. |
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Innovativeness and the effects of urbanization on risk-taking behaviors in wild Barbados birds |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2017 |
Publication |
Animal Cognition |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Cogn. |
| Volume |
20 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
33-42 |
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The effects of urbanization on avian cognition remain poorly understood. Risk-taking behaviors like boldness, neophobia and flight distance are thought to affect opportunism and innovativeness, and should also vary with urbanization. Here, we investigate variation in risk-taking behaviors in the field in an avian assemblage of nine species that forage together in Barbados and for which innovation rate is known from previous work. We predicted that birds from highly urbanized areas would show more risk-taking behavior than conspecifics from less urbanized parts of the island and that the differences would be strongest in the most innovative of the species. Overall, we found that urban birds are bolder, less neophobic and have shorter flight distances than their less urbanized conspecifics. Additionally, we detected between-species differences in the effect of urbanization on flight distance, more innovative species showing smaller differences in flight distance between areas. Our results suggest that, within successful urban colonizers, species differences in innovativeness may affect the way species change their risk-taking behaviors in response to the urban environment. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ducatez2017 |
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6128 |
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Lefebvre, L.; Whittle, P.; Lascaris, E.; Finkelstein, A. |
| Title |
Feeding innovations and forebrain size in birds |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
1997 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
53 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
549-560 |
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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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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4740 |
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Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. |
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Scrounging prevents cultural transmission of food-finding behaviour in pigeons |
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Journal Article |
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1987 |
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Animal Behaviour. |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
35 |
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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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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 |
| Year |
1986 |
Publication |
Animal Behaviour |
Abbreviated Journal |
Anim. Behav. |
| Volume |
34 |
Issue |
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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