Wild skuas can follow human-given behavioural cues when objects resemble natural food

Abstract

We thank the French Polar Institute (IPEV) and the FYSSEN Foundation. We also thank Laura Pinto for assistance with running the experiments.

Responses to novelty in wild insular birds: comparing breeding populations in ecologically contrasting habitats

“…approaching the objects within a few minutes (Mettke‐Hofmann et al 2002 ), similarly to other avian species tested in the field, e.g. urban caracaras, Milvago chimango (Biondi et al 2020 ), skuas (Danel et al 2022 )). We also found no differences between the two populations in the latency to approach novel objects.…”

“…Donaldson et al 2010 ; Damerius et al 2017 ). In one of the few studies conducted on wild birds, Danel et al ( 2022 ) raised the possibility that adult wild skuas, which had interacted with humans during food-rewarded behavioural and cognitive experiments, may have developed an increased tendency to explore novel objects presented by humans. Both species cohabit islands with humans and face similar histories of exposure to humans at certain locations, potentially giving rise to similar levels of motivation to gain information through interacting with novelty.…”

Responses of wild skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi) to human cues in cooperative and competitive social contexts.

“…For instance, in a comparative study with chimpanzees and orangutans ( Pongo abelii ), the only subject that successfully selected hidden food from one of three containers was an enculturated orangutan (Tomasello et al, 1997; see also Itakura et al, 1999 for a similar pattern with enculturated chimpanzees). Recently, a study suggests that experience with humans plays a role in skuas’ capacity to follow human-provided cues (Danel et al, 2022b). When two types of food objects (anthropogenic items: wrapped muffins or resembling-natural-food items: plaster eggs) were presented to individual skuas, most subjects touched food objects but followed human-behavioral cues (i.e., touched the same objects held by the human experimenter) only when objects resembled natural food (plaster eggs).…”

“…Indeed, the population tested in this experiment had previously participated in behavioral tasks over a fieldwork of very short duration (2.5 weeks). Based on previous work showing a behavioral divergence between populations that vary in the degree of previous exposure to humans (e.g., disturbed by humans vs. naïve snare penguins, Eudyptes robustus : Ellenberg et al, 2012 and little penguins, Eudyptula minor : Sherwen et al, 2015; urban vs. rural burrowing owls, Athene cunicularia : Carrete & Tella, 2017), it is possible that the learned association between food rewards and human experimenters has played a significant role in skuas’ capacity to use human gestures (Danel et al, 2022b). Similarly, brown skuas learn to recognize individual humans after repeated exposure to potentially threatening human experimenters (Lee et al, 2016).…”

Inter-species stimulus enhancement: herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ) mimic human food choice during foraging

“…Wild brown skuas ( Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi ), another kleptoparasitic seabird, prefer food that has previously been handled by an experimenter [ 44 ] and can follow human behavioural cues [ 45 ], which raises questions as to whether frequent contact with humans is a prerequisite for the exploitation of human cues or simply a facilitator, as kleptoparasites may possess a general tendency for paying attention to heterospecific cues.…”