Social behavior mediates the use of social and personal information in wild jays

Abstract

The factors favoring the evolution of certain cognitive abilities in animals remain unclear. Social learning is a cognitive ability that reduces the cost of acquiring personal information and forms the foundation for cultural behavior. Theory predicts the evolutionary pressures to evolve social learning should be greater in more social species. However, research testing this theory has primarily occurred in captivity, where artificial environments can affect performance and yield conflicting results. We compared the use of social and personal information, and the social learning mechanisms used by wild, asocial California scrub-jays and social Mexican jays. We trained demonstrators to solve one door on a multi-door task, then measured the behavior of naïve conspecifics towards the task. If social learning occurs, observations of demonstrators will change the rate that naïve individuals interact with each door. We found both species socially learned, though personal information had a much greater effect on behavior in the asocial species while social information was more important for the social species. Additionally, both species used social information to avoid, rather than copy, conspecifics. Our findings demonstrate that while complex social group structures may be unnecessary for the evolution of social learning, it does affect the use of social versus personal information.

Social information used to elicit cache protection differs between pinyon jays and Clark’s nutcrackers

“…On the contrary, less social species such as Clark’s nutcrackers and Eurasian jays ( Garrulus glandarius ) can reduce their caching in the presence of another bird (Clary & Kelly 2011; Shaw & Clayton 2012), as they have more opportunities to cache in private, and adjust their re-caching behavior only once experiencing pilferage. This difference in the degree of reliance on personal and social information is supported by a recent study comparing two corvid species that differed in sociality (McCune et al . 2022).…”

“…Shaw & Clayton 2012), as they have more opportunities to cache in private, and adjust their re-caching behavior only once experiencing pilferage. This difference in the degree of reliance on personal and social information is supported by a recent study comparing two corvid species that differed in sociality(McCune et al 2022). Social Mexican scrub jays relied more on social information to solve a motor task, whereas relatively less social…”

Human food subsidies drive individual specialization and intrapopulation dietary differences in a generalist predator

“…We found a strong pattern of IS driven by both the foraging stratum of an individual and its degree of specialization on human foods. Foraging behaviors may be learned through observing conspecifics or parents (social learning), favoring maintenance of individual‐specific foraging behavior (McCune et al, 2022). Empirical evidence suggests that individual foraging specialization can be transmitted within family groups and that foraging specializations learned by young vertebrates are retained as adults.…”