Records |
Author |
Templeton, J.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
Vicarious sampling: the use of personal and public information by starlings foraging in a simple patchy environment |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1996 |
Publication |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
Abbreviated Journal |
Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. |
Volume |
38 |
Issue |
2 |
Pages |
105-114 |
Keywords |
Social foraging ? Patch sampling ? Public information ? Sturnidae |
Abstract |
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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Author |
Dubois, F.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
The forager's dilemma: food sharing and food defense as risk-sensitive foraging options |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2003 |
Publication |
The American Naturalist |
Abbreviated Journal |
Am Nat |
Volume |
162 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
768-779 |
Keywords |
Animals; Competitive Behavior/*physiology; *Environment; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; *Game Theory; *Models, Biological; Population Density; Population Dynamics |
Abstract |
Although many variants of the hawk-dove game predict the frequency at which group foraging animals should compete aggressively, none of them can explain why a large number of group foraging animals share food clumps without any overt aggression. One reason for this shortcoming is that hawk-dove games typically consider only a single contest, while most group foraging situations involve opponents that interact repeatedly over discovered food clumps. The present iterated hawk-dove game predicts that in situations that are analogous to a prisoner's dilemma, animals should share the resources without aggression, provided that the number of simultaneously available food clumps is sufficiently large and the number of competitors is relatively small. However, given that the expected gain of an aggressive animal is more variable than the gain expected by nonaggressive individuals, the predicted effect of the number of food items in a clump-clump richness-depends on whether only the mean or both the mean and variability associated with payoffs are considered. More precisely, the deterministic game predicts that aggression should increase with clump richness, whereas the stochastic risk-sensitive game predicts that the frequency of encounters resulting in aggression should peak at intermediate clump richnesses or decrease with increasing clump richness if animals show sensitivity to the variance or coefficient of variation, respectively. |
Address |
Departement des Sciences Biologiques, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada. fdubois@u-bourgogne.fr |
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0003-0147 |
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PMID:14737714 |
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2132 |
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Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. |
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 |
387-394 |
Keywords |
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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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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5265 |
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Author |
Danchin, E.; Giraldeau, L.-A.; Valone, T.J.; Wagner, R.H. |
Title |
Public information: from nosy neighbors to cultural evolution |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Science (New York, N.Y.) |
Abbreviated Journal |
Science |
Volume |
305 |
Issue |
5683 |
Pages |
487-491 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Cues; *Cultural Evolution; *Decision Making; Environment; Evolution; Feeding Behavior; Female; Genes; Humans; Male; Reproduction; Sexual Behavior, Animal |
Abstract |
Psychologists, economists, and advertising moguls have long known that human decision-making is strongly influenced by the behavior of others. A rapidly accumulating body of evidence suggests that the same is true in animals. Individuals can use information arising from cues inadvertently produced by the behavior of other individuals with similar requirements. Many of these cues provide public information about the quality of alternatives. The use of public information is taxonomically widespread and can enhance fitness. Public information can lead to cultural evolution, which we suggest may then affect biological evolution. |
Address |
U.P.M.C. CNRS-UMR7625, Bat A-7e etage-Case 237, 7 quai Saint Bernard, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. edanchin@snv.jussieu.fr |
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1095-9203 |
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PMID:15273386 |
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2131 |
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Author |
Templeton, J.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
Public information cues affect the scrounging decisions of starlings |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
1995 |
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Volume |
49 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1617-1626 |
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Abstract |
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 |
Gauvin, S.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
Nutmeg mannikins ( Lonchura punctulata) reduce their feeding rates in response to simulated competition |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Oecologia |
Abbreviated Journal |
Oecologia |
Volume |
139 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
150-156 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Feeding Behavior; Population Density; *Social Behavior; *Songbirds |
Abstract |
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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Author |
Lefebvre, L.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
Is social learning an adaptive specialisation? |
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Book Chapter |
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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Dall, S.R.X.; Giraldeau, L.-A.; Olsson, O.; McNamara, J.M.; Stephens, D.W. |
Title |
Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2005 |
Publication |
Trends in Ecology & Evolution (Personal Edition) |
Abbreviated Journal |
Trends Ecol Evol |
Volume |
20 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
187-193 |
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Abstract |
Information is a crucial currency for animals from both a behavioural and evolutionary perspective. Adaptive behaviour relies upon accurate estimation of relevant ecological parameters; the better informed an individual, the better it can develop and adjust its behaviour to meet the demands of a variable world. Here, we focus on the burgeoning interest in the impact of ecological uncertainty on adaptation, and the means by which it can be reduced by gathering information, from both 'passive' and 'responsive' sources. Our overview demonstrates the value of adopting an explicitly informational approach, and highlights the components that one needs to develop useful approaches to studying information use by animals. We propose a quantitative framework, based on statistical decision theory, for analysing animal information use in evolutionary ecology. Our purpose is to promote an integrative approach to studying information use by animals, which is itself integral to adaptive animal behaviour and organismal biology. |
Address |
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter in Cornwall, Tremough Campus, Penryn, UK, TR10 9EZ. sashadall@iname.com |
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0169-5347 |
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PMID:16701367 |
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2128 |
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Author |
Nocera, J.J.; Forbes, G.J.; Giraldeau, L.-A. |
Title |
Inadvertent social information in breeding site selection of natal dispersing birds |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc Biol Sci |
Volume |
273 |
Issue |
1584 |
Pages |
349-355 |
Keywords |
Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Breeding; *Environment; Female; Logistic Models; Male; Songbirds/growth & development/*physiology |
Abstract |
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. |
Address |
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 |
Giraldeau, L.-A.; Lefebvre, L. |
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 |
797-803 |
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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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0003-3472 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6012 |
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