10.5061/DRYAD.M0CFXPP43
Reichert, Michael
0000-0002-0159-4387
Oklahoma State University
Morand-Ferron, Julie
University of Ottawa
Kulahci, Ipek
University College Cork
Firth, Josh
University of Oxford
Davidson, Gabrielle
University of Cambridge
Crofts, Sam
University of Oxford
Quinn, John
University College Cork
Cognition and covariance in the producer-scrounger game
Dryad
dataset
2021
Alternative tactics
field experiment
individual differences
repeatability
social foraging
FOS: Biological sciences
European Research Council
https://ror.org/0472cxd90
617509
Science Foundation Ireland
https://ror.org/0271asj38
14/ERC/B3118
2021-06-11T00:00:00Z
2021-06-11T00:00:00Z
en
21832821 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. The producer-scrounger game is a key element of foraging ecology in
many systems. Producing and scrounging typically covary negatively, but
partitioning this covariance into contributions of individual plasticity
and consistent between individual differences is key to understanding
population level consequences of foraging strategies. Furthermore, little
is known about the role cognition plays in the producer-scrounger game. 2.
We investigated the role of cognition in these alternative foraging
tactics in wild mixed-species flocks of great tits and blue tits, using a
production learning task in which we measured individuals’ speed of
learning to visit the single feeder in an array that would provide them
with a food reward. We also quantified the proportion of individuals’
feeds that were scrounges (‘proportion scrounged’); scrounging was
possible if individuals visited immediately after a previous rewarded
visitor. Three learning experiments–initial and two reversal
learning–enabled us to estimate the repeatability and covariance of each
foraging behaviour. 3. First, we examined whether individuals learned to
improve their scrounging success (i.e. whether they actually obtained food
by scrounging when there was an opportunity to do so). Second, we
quantified the repeatability of proportion scrounged, and asked whether
proportion scrounged affected production learning speed among individuals.
Third, we used multivariate analyses to partition within- and
among-individual components of covariance between proportion scrounged and
production learning speed. 4. Individuals improved their scrounging
success over time. Birds with a greater proportion scrounged took longer
to learn their own rewarding feeder. Although multivariate analyses showed
that covariance between proportion scrounged and learning speed was driven
primarily by within-individual variation, that is, by behavioural
plasticity, among-individual differences also played a role for blue tits.
5. This is the first demonstration of a cognitive trait influencing
producing and scrounging in the same wild system, highlighting the
importance of cognition in the use of alternative resource acquisition
tactics. The results of our covariance analyses suggest the potential for
genetic differences in allocation to alternative foraging tactics, which
are likely species and system dependent. They also point to the need to
control for different foraging tactics when studying individual cognition
in the wild.