Behaviour vol. 146 no. 11 (November 2009)
Overington, SE, L Cauchard,J Morand-Ferron & L Lefebvre (2009) Innovation in
groups: does the proximity of others facilitate or inhibit performance?
Behaviour 146: 1543-1564.
Foraging innovation, in which an individual eats a novel food or uses a
novel foraging technique, has been observed in a wide range of species. If
other individuals are nearby, they may adopt the innovation, thus spreading
it through the population. Much research has focused on this social
transmission of behaviour, but the effect of social context on the emergence
of novel behaviour is unclear. Here, we examine the effect of social context
on innovative feeding behaviour in the Carib grackle (Quiscalus lugubris),
an opportunistic, gregarious bird. We test the effect of the proximity of
conspecifics, while eliminating the direct effects of interference,
scrounging, or aggression. Using a repeated-measures design, we found that
birds took significantly longer to contact novel foraging tasks when in the
presence of others vs. alone, and during playbacks of alarm calls vs. a
control sound. Further, performance of a food-processing behaviour decreased
when birds were with others, and individuals adjusted their behaviour
depending on their distance from conspecifics. Our results suggest that
feeding in groups may slow down or inhibit innovative foraging behaviour in
this species. We discuss the implications of a trade-off between feeding in
groups and taking advantage of new feeding opportunities.
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