Inter-individual and age differences in exploration, neophobia and problem-solving ability in a Neotropical raptor (Milvago chimango)

Abstract

Animal innovations have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences. The occurrence and persistence of an innovation require several processes, including exploration, social and asocial learning, and low neophobia. In addition, the identity of the innovator may determine how these new behaviours are socially transmitted. Taking into account inter-individual and age differences, we investigated three correlates of animal innovation: object exploration, neophobia level and novel problem-solving ability in an opportunistic generalist raptor, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango). Eighteen individuals (7 adults and 11 juveniles) were caught during the non-breeding period and housed in individual cages in outdoor aviaries. Each bird was given three tests: exploration, neophobia and problem-solving. Individuals differed in their response to novel situations both within and between age groups. Most of the juveniles were more explorative and had a lower neophobic response to a strange object than adult birds, but both age groups were able to solve a novel problem when given a food reward. In juveniles, neophobia level and problem-solving performance were inversely related; however, we found no relationship between these behaviours in adults. Exploration did not correlate with neophobia or problem-solving ability for either age group. This research is one of the few studies exploring the inter-individual and age differences in behavioural innovation and their correlates in a bird of prey. The explorative tendency, low neophobia and ability to innovate showed by M. chimango may be advantageous for this generalist and opportunistic raptor and might be some of the factors underlying its ecological success.

Patterns of predator neophobia: a meta-analytic review

“…However, observations of high levels of neophobia are repeatable and can correlate across contexts (e.g. decreased use of structure and poorer problem solving [29,30]). Likewise, numerous studies have explored variation in predator neophobia across populations and species (e.g.…”

Visual abilities in two raptors with different ecology

“…Furthermore, it has been shown that raptors differ in their head movements, which could reflect different foraging tactics (O'Rourke et al, 2010b). Because inter-individual problem-solving abilities have been found in a raptorial species, the chimango caracara, Phalcoboenus chimango (formerly named as Milvago chimango; Biondi et al, 2010), it is possible that individuals may also differ in their behaviour when presented with a visually challenging task; for instance, the number of head movements may differ before making a visual discrimination or there may be differences in the time delay before showing a response towards a stimulus. These behavioural differences may also reflect inter-individual differences in visual capacity, particularly of visual acuity.…”

Innovative problem solving by wild spotted hyenas

“…Exploration is typically quantified by examining the extent to which an individual investigates a novel area or object, including measures such as the time spent in the novel area, the amount of space the individual covers, the amount of time spent near the novel object, the number of sides or parts of the object contacted, or the latency to approach novel objects in their environment [8,13,14,[28][29][30][31][32]. In this study, we focused on the variety of behaviours that hyenas exhibited when interacting for the first time with a novel problem-solving apparatus, and thus we did not rely exclusively on these traditional temporal or spatial measures.…”