The effects of food limitation on behavior, corticosterone, and the use of social information in the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra)
Abstract
Meeting metabolic demands through foraging is a basic animal need that drives the evolution of foraging adaptations. The use of social information is one adaptation that could improve foraging success and fitness if it helps animals locate food when conditions are challenging. It is unknown if food limitation—or the glucocorticoid hormones that are often released when food is limited—can influence the extent to which animals use social information or their ability to learn novel foraging techniques. We explored the effects of limited access to food on activity levels, corticosterone secretion, and social information use in red crossbills, a highly social songbird species adapted to cope with high degrees of resource unpredictability. Using an observer/demonstrator paradigm, food limited or well fed observers were allowed to watch demonstrators solve a novel feeding puzzle before being allowed to attempt the puzzle themselves across repeated trials. Our findings suggest that food limitation transiently increased activity levels but did not result in long-term elevations of corticosterone and did not increase the speed at which red crossbills utilized social information to solve the novel foraging task. However, food limitation may have increased the value of using socially acquired information, as foraging technique performance improved faster in food limited birds relative to controls. Social learning was further demonstrated by the red crossbills in this study when naïve observers overwhelmingly learned a socially-demonstrated task over an undemonstrated task when tested on a two-task foraging board.
An empirical test of bet-hedging polyandry hypothesis in the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus
Abstract Theory shows that polyandry (mating with multiple males within a reproductive season) works as bet-hedging to increase the geometric mean fitness (GMF) of polyandrous genotype over generations and avoid …
Signal response is context-dependent in Polistes dominula
Abstract Theory suggests honest status signals mediate agonistic interactions between unfamiliar individuals, but may be less important during interactions between familiar individuals. Few studies have tested receiver responses to status …
Automating the analysis of fish grazing behaviour from videos using image classification and optical flow
Publication date: July 2021
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 177
Author(s): Ellen M. Ditria, Eric L. Jinks, Rod M. Connolly
Do infanticides occur in harem-forming equids? A test with long-term sociodemographic data in wild plains zebras
Publication date: July 2021
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 177
Author(s): Camille Vitet, Patrick Duncan, Andre Ganswindt, Cheryl Mabika, Simon Chamaillé-Jammes
The interplay between winner–loser effects and social rank in cooperatively breeding vertebrates
Publication date: July 2021
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 177
Author(s): Dona A.M. Lerena, Diogo F. Antunes, Barbara Taborsky
Sensing underground activity: diel digging activity pattern during nest escape by sea turtle hatchlings
Publication date: July 2021
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 177
Author(s): Hideaki Nishizawa, Yuichiro Hashimoto, Mohd Uzair Rusli, Kotaro Ichikawa, Juanita Joseph
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