Experimental resource pulses influence social-network dynamics and the potential for information flow in tool-using crows

Clair, James J. H. St; Burns, Zackory T.; Bettaney, Elaine M.; Morrissey, Michael B.; Otis, Brian; Ryder, Thomas B.; Fleischer, Robert C.; James, Richard; Rutz, Christian

doi:10.1038/ncomms8197

Cited by 51 publications

(63 citation statements)

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“…Therefore, social dynamics in the wild could constrain crows' learning. Indeed, New Caledonian crows live in extended family groups (St Clair et al, 2015;Holzhaider et al, 2011) and there is evidence that they come into close proximity with neighboring groups when resources are abundant, though the nature of these interactions is unknown (Rutz et al, 2012;St Clair et al, 2015). The context specific effect we identify in our experiment could also play a role in maintaining family specific tool Blineages^: though family groups can interact, crows are likely to form a template of tools and/or counterparts they have had more exposure to (i.e., the tools of those with whom they most frequently interact).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

et al. 2015

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New Caledonian crows make and use tools, and tool types vary over geographic landscapes. Social learning may explain the variation in tool design, but it is unknown to what degree social learning accounts for the maintenance of these designs. Indeed, little is known about the mechanisms these crows use to obtain information from others, despite the question's importance in understanding whether tool behavior is transmitted via social, genetic, or environmental means. For social transmission to account for tool-type variation, copying must utilize a mechanism that is action specific (e.g., pushing left vs. right) as well as context specific (e.g., pushing a particular object vs. any object). To determine whether crows can copy a demonstrator's actions as well as the contexts in which they occur, we conducted a diffusion experiment using a novel foraging task. We used a nontool task to eliminate any confounds introduced by individual differences in their prior tool experience. Two groups had demonstrators (trained in isolation on different options of a four-option task, including a two-action option) and one group did not. We found that crows socially learn about context: After observers see a demonstrator interact with the task, they are more likely to interact with the same parts of the task. In contrast, observers did not copy the demonstrator's specific actions. Our results suggest it is unlikely that observing tool-making behavior transmits tool types. We suggest it is possible that tool types are transmitted when crows copy the physical form of the tools they encounter.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

et al. 2015

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“…The data were collected via 45 basestations deployed in the study area. We have provided a full description of our field procedures elsewhere [15,23].…”

Section: Field Deploymentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…240,000 encounter logs, with all 33 crows participating in at least one association. The encounters analysed (both here and in [15]) were restricted to those recorded between sunrise and sunset only, which constituted a sample of ca. 177,000 logs.…”

Section: Preliminary Data Processing and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Proximity loggers are 'transceiver' tags that both transmit and receive radio signals (acoustic versions for aquatic habitats are available; [12,13]) and exploit the fact that radio signals attenuate predictably with distance. The technology can therefore be used to make inferences about the 'proximity' of associating individuals (see below, and for a detailed discussion, [14]), but data on the physical locations of encounters are usually lacking (but see [15,16]). Georeferencing the data collected by proximity loggers remains a major challenge [16], but promises unprecedented insights into the spatiotemporal dynamics of a wide range of biological processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As explained in detail below, Encounternet is a fully digital proximitylogging technology, which unlike other commercially available terrestrial systems [17][18][19][20][21][22] enables tag-to-tag communication over distances well in excess of 10 m (other systems usually transmit over a few metres) and records raw signal-strength data for encounters [other systems record detections as binary (yes/no) data]. In earlier papers, we have described how we calibrated our system for field deployment [14] and reported the analysis of both time-aggregated [23] and dynamic network data [15]. Here, we explain the basic procedures for processing and visualising proximity-logger data, focussing The three panels show the movements of two subjects (A, B) in 2D space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Processing and visualising association data from animal-borne proximity loggers

Bettaney¹,

James²,

Clair³

et al. 2015

Anim Biotelemetry

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Background: With increasing interest in animal social networks, field biologists have started exploring the use of advanced tracking technologies for mapping social encounters in free-ranging subjects. Proximity logging, which involves the use of animal-borne tags with the capacity for two-way communication, has attracted particular attention in recent years. While the basic rationale of proximity logging is straightforward, systems generate very large datasets which pose considerable challenges in terms of processing and visualisation. Technical aspects of data handling are crucial for the success of proximity-logging studies, yet are only rarely reported in full detail. Here, we describe the procedures we employed for mining the data generated by a recent deployment of a novel proximitylogging system, "Encounternet", to study social-network dynamics in tool-using New Caledonian crows.Results: Our field deployment of an Encounternet system produced some 240,000 encounter logs for 33 crows over a 19-day study period. Using this dataset, we illustrate a range of procedures, including: examination of tag reciprocity (i.e. whether both tags participating in an encounter detected the encounter and, if so, whether their records differed); filtering of data according to a predetermined signal-strength criterion (to enable analyses that focus on encounters within a particular distance range); amalgamation of temporally clustered encounter logs (to remove data artefacts and to enable robust analysis of biological patterns); and visualisation of dynamic network data as timeline plots (which can be used, among other things, to visualise the simulated diffusion of information). Conclusions:Researchers wishing to study animal social networks with proximity-logging systems should be aware of the complexities involved. Successful data analysis requires not only a sound understanding of hardware and software operation, but also bioinformatics expertise. Our paper aims to facilitate future projects by explaining in detail some of the subtleties that are easily overlooked in first-pass analyses, but are key for reaching valid biological conclusions. We hope that this work will prove useful to other researchers, especially when read in conjunction with three recently published companion papers that report aspects of system calibration and key results.

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Automated proximity sensing in small vertebrates: design of miniaturized sensor nodes and first field tests in bats

Ripperger

Josic

Hierold

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Social evolution has led to a stunning diversity of complex social behavior, in particular in vertebrate taxa. Thorough documentation of social interactions is crucial to study the causes and consequences of sociality in gregarious animals. Wireless digital transceivers represent a promising tool to revolutionize data collection for the study of social interactions in terms of the degree of automation, data quantity, and quality. Unfortunately, devices for automated proximity sensing via direct communication among animal‐borne sensors are usually heavy and do not allow for the investigation of small animal species, which represent the majority of avian and mammalian taxa. We present a lightweight animal‐borne sensor node that is built from commercially available components and uses a sophisticated scheme for energy‐efficient communication, with high sampling rates at relatively low power consumption. We demonstrate the basic functionality of the sensor node under laboratory conditions and its applicability for the study of social interactions among free‐ranging animals. The first field tests were performed on two species of bats in temperate and tropical ecosystems. At <2 g, this sensor node is light enough to observe a broad spectrum of taxa including small vertebrates. Given our specifications, the system was especially sensitive to changes in distance within the short range (up to a distance of 4 m between tags). High spatial resolution at short distances enables the evaluation of interactions among individuals at a fine scale and the investigation of close contacts. This technology opens new avenues of research, allowing detailed investigation of events associated with social contact, such as mating behavior, pathogen transmission, social learning, and resource sharing. Social behavior that is not easily observed becomes observable, for example, in animals living in burrows or in nocturnal animals. A switch from traditional methods to the application of digital transceiver chips in proximity sensing offers numerous advantages in addition to an enormous increase in data quality and quantity. For future applications, the platform allows for the integration of additional sensors that may collect physiological or environmental data. Such information complements social network studies and may allow for a deeper understanding of animal ecology and social behavior.

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Experimental resource pulses influence social-network dynamics and the potential for information flow in tool-using crows

Cited by 51 publications

References 51 publications

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

Processing and visualising association data from animal-borne proximity loggers

Automated proximity sensing in small vertebrates: design of miniaturized sensor nodes and first field tests in bats

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