10.5061/DRYAD.G977F
Duque, Juan F.
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Stevens, Jeffrey R.
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Data from: Voluntary food sharing in pinyon jays: the role of reciprocity
and dominance
Dryad
dataset
2017
food sharing
Prosociality
Corvid
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus
dominance
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DGE-1041000
2017-08-17T00:00:00Z
2017-08-17T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.020
19405 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Food sharing offers a clear example of prosocial behaviour, in which one
individual's actions benefit another. Researchers have proposed a
range of hypotheses that explain why food sharing may occur among
unrelated individuals. Two such hypotheses, reciprocity and dominance,
have been tested in many species, including fish, corvids, rats, bats and
primates, showing that (1) recipients sometimes reciprocate sharing back
to previous donors and (2) dominant individuals share more than
subordinates. Although primates dominate the study of prosocial behaviour,
active donation of food is actually quite rare in primates. In contrast,
several corvid species spontaneously share food much more frequently.
Here, we explored the role of reciprocity and dominance in spontaneous
food sharing among male pinyon jays, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, a North
American corvid species that exhibits high levels of social complexity.
Unlike much of the previous work, we tested prosocial behaviour among
unrelated, non-pair-bonded adults. We observed high levels of active
sharing, and donors showed clear preferences with whom they shared. We
found no evidence that pinyon jays reciprocated shares in either the short
or long term. This was true for both sharing within dyads (direct
reciprocity) and sharing irrespective of most recent partner identity
(generalized reciprocity). However, dominance influenced sharing in one of
our squads, with dominant individuals sharing more than subordinates. This
study highlights corvids as a fruitful model for the study of the
proximate mechanisms underlying naturally occurring prosocial behaviours.
duque_stevensThis zip file includes data files, an R script, and a README
file to analyze pinyon jay food sharing data.