Elevation-related differences in novel environment exploration and social dominance in food-caching mountain chickadees

Kozlovsky, Dovid Y.; Branch, Carrie L.; Freas, Cody A.; Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

doi:10.1007/s00265-014-1796-6

Cited by 37 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Previous work on this mountain chickadee system has shown that high and low elevation birds exhibit differences in spatial memory ability, hippocampal morphology, social dominance, novel environment exploration, problem solving and proactive aggression [19,31,39,98,99], as well as significant differences in mate preference [22], and male song structure [23]. In addition, several of these phenotypic differences between high and low elevation chickadees have been documented over multiple years despite large climatic variation among these years [32,54].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

Branch¹,

Jahner²,

Kozlovsky³

et al. 2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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Montane habitats are characterized by predictably rapid heterogeneity along elevational gradients and are useful for investigating the consequences of environmental heterogeneity for local adaptation and population genetic structure. Food-caching mountain chickadees inhabit a continuous elevation gradient in the Sierra Nevada, and birds living at harsher, high elevations have better spatial memory ability and exhibit differences in male song structure and female mate preference compared to birds inhabiting milder, low elevations. While high elevation birds breed, on average, two weeks later than low elevation birds, the extent of gene flow between elevations is unknown. Despite phenotypic variation and indirect evidence for local adaptation, population genetic analyses based on 18 073 single nucleotide polymorphisms across three transects of high and low elevation populations provided no evidence for genetic differentiation. Analyses based on individual genotypes revealed no patterns of clustering, pairwise estimates of genetic differentiation (FST, Nei's D) were very low, and AMOVA revealed no evidence for genetic variation structured by transect or by low and high elevation sites within transects. In addition, we found no consistent evidence for strong parallel allele frequency divergence between low and high elevation sites within the three transects. Large elevation-related phenotypic variation may be maintained by strong selection despite gene flow and future work should focus on the mechanisms underlying such variation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low elevation males were dominant to high elevation males in pairwise interactions [39]. Differences in social dominance are particularly interesting given that dominant individuals tend to experience higher fitness (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

Branch¹,

Jahner²,

Kozlovsky³

et al. 2017

R. Soc. open sci.

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“…Complex cognitive processing in the social domain, such as third-party relationships and post-aggression reconciliation, is important in anthropoid primates (Cheney and Seyfarth 2007). Recent evidence reveals similar importance in socially complex avian species like parids (Kozlovsky et al 2014(Kozlovsky et al , 2015 and corvids. Ravens, Corvus corax, vocally respond differently to playbacks of group members they have not interacted with for up to 3 years compared to unfamiliar individuals, and their particular vocal response also depends upon the nature of their relationship with that former group member (Boeckle and Bugnyar 2012).…”

Section: Social Complexity and Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Does social complexity link vocal complexity and cooperation?

Freeberg

Krams

2015

J Ornithol

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In some avian species, individuals spend most of their lives in complex social groups. A recent hypothesis argues that social complexity will drive complexity in signaling systems. According to this hypothesis, individuals living in more complex groups (larger and with greater diversity of interactions) require larger and more diverse repertoires of signals, compared to individuals living in groups that are relatively simple in social structure. Social complexity has also been argued to be an important driver of social cognition and cooperation. Although many of these arguments have been based on empirical findings with non-human primates, similar evidence is beginning to emerge from avian studies. Here, we discuss some of this avian evidence, with an emphasis on two model species: Carolina chickadees, Poecile carolinensis (Paridae), and pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleuca. In Carolina chickadees, variation in the structure of chicka-dee calls influences behavior of receivers in pro-social and potentially cooperative ways in anti-predator and food detection contexts. In pied flycatchers, breeding individuals were much less likely to travel greater distances to assist in mobbing predators near their conspecific neighbors if those neighbors had failed to assist them in mobbing earlier.More research is needed to determine whether communicative complexity per se makes sophisticated social cognition possible, such as reconciliation and cooperation (and whether the latter might stem from reciprocal altruism or less cognitively demanding processes like conspecific by-product mutualism).

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“…A potential explanation is that increased benefits of solvers may be negated by increased costs in urban habitats. For example, individuals with better problem-solving performance were found to be less competent in agonistic interactions Kozlovsky et al 2014Kozlovsky et al , 2015 or attacked more frequently by their flock mates , although the relationship between problem solving and competitiveness is not unequivocal (reviewed by Griffin and Guez 2014;Preiszner et al 2015;Quinn et al 2016). Thus, stronger competition for food during breeding in urban habitats (Foltz et al 2015) might reduce the reproductive payoffs of problem-solving skills.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Problem-solving performance and reproductive success of great tits in urban and forest habitats

et al. 2016

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Success in problem solving, a form of innovativeness, can help animals exploit their environments, and recent research suggests that it may correlate with reproductive success. Innovativeness has been proposed to be especially beneficial in urbanized habitats, as suggested by superior problem-solving performance of urban individuals in some species. If there is stronger selection for innovativeness in cities than in natural habitats, we expect problem-solving performance to have a greater positive effect on fitness in more urbanized habitats. We tested this idea in great tits (Parus major) breeding at two urban sites and two forests by measuring their problem-solving performance in an obstacle-removal task and a food-acquisition task. Urban pairs were significantly faster problem-solvers in both tasks. Solving speed in the obstacle-removal task was positively correlated with hatching success and the number of fledglings, whereas performance in the food-acquisition task did not correlate with reproductive success. These relationships did not differ between urban and forest habitats. Neophobia, sensitivity to human disturbance, and risk taking in the presence of a predator did not explain the relationships of problem-solving performance either with habitat type or with reproductive success. Our results suggest that the benefit of innovativeness in terms of reproductive success is similar in urban and natural habitats, implying that problem-solving skills may be enhanced in urban populations by some other benefits (e.g. increased survival) or reduced costs (e.g. more opportunities to gain practice with challenging tasks).

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Elevation-related differences in novel environment exploration and social dominance in food-caching mountain chickadees

Cited by 37 publications

References 45 publications

Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli)

Does social complexity link vocal complexity and cooperation?

Problem-solving performance and reproductive success of great tits in urban and forest habitats

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