Social transmission in the wild can reduce predation pressure on novel prey signals

AbstractSocial transmission of information is taxonomically widespread and could have profound effects on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of animal communities. Demonstrating this in the wild, however, has been challenging. Here we show by field experiment that social transmission among predators can shape how selection acts on prey defences. Using artificial prey and a novel approach in statistical analyses of social networks, we find that blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and great tit (Parus major) predators learn about prey defences by watching others. This shifts population preferences rapidly to match changes in prey profitability, and reduces predation pressure from naïve predators. Our results may help resolve how costly prey defences are maintained despite influxes of naïve juvenile predators, and suggest that accounting for social transmission is essential if we are to understand coevolutionary processes.

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Does mist-netting provide reliable data to determine the sex and age ratios of migrating birds? A case study involving the Great Tit (Parus major) and the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Ekológia (Bratislava) ◽

10.2478/eko-2013-0015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Jarosław K. Nowakowski ◽

Jacek Chruściel ◽

Krzysztof Muś

Keyword(s):

Parus Major ◽

Great Tit ◽

Reliable Data ◽

Blue Tit ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

Baltic Coast ◽

Migrating Birds ◽

Blue Tits ◽

Age And Sex

AbstractNowakowski J.K., Chruściel J., Muś K.: Does mist-netting provide reliable data to determine the sex and age ratios of migrating birds? A case study involving the Great Tit (Parus major) and the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 173-185 , 2013.Ringing results of tits caught at two stations on the Polish Baltic coast were used to check if mistnetting could be successfully used to analyse the composition of sex and age classes of migrating birds. Four hypotheses are discussed, describing the distribution of age and sex classes during migration, and the consequences these distributions might have for the catching results. We analysed records of 59 000 Blue Tits and more than 84 000 Great Tits that were caught and we found a similarity in the results of catches at stations 188 km apart, and a higher similarity among catching sites 0.5-16 km apart. These results proved that mist-netting provides reliable data on the sex and age structure of migrating flocks, and that these data can generally be interpreted as representative for at least the area in a radius of more than 10 km. The results also showed a migratory divide through the central part of the Polish Baltic coastline between irruptive Blue Tits in the west and regular partial migrants in the east. Great Tits showed no tendency for irruptions anywhere in the study area. A high correspondence in the age and sex ratio was found for Great Tits and Blue Tits, in particular where both species are regular migrants. We found that the ratios of females and immatures did not differ by more than 1% over many years of study in these areas.

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Intraspecific Variation and Interspecific Differences in the Bacterial and Fungal Assemblages of Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tit (Parus major) Nests

Microbial Ecology ◽

10.1007/s00248-009-9591-z ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 221-232 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Anne E. Goodenough ◽

Bethan Stallwood

Keyword(s):

Intraspecific Variation ◽

Parus Major ◽

Great Tit ◽

Blue Tit ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

Interspecific Differences ◽

Fungal Assemblages

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Social learning in birds and its role in shaping a foraging niche

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2010.0343 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 366 (1567) ◽

pp. 969-977 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Author(s):

Tore Slagsvold ◽

Karen L. Wiebe

Keyword(s):

Social Learning ◽

Foraging Behaviour ◽

Parus Major ◽

Passerine Birds ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

In Captivity ◽

In The Wild ◽

Foraging Niche ◽

Evolutionary Consequences ◽

Blue Tits

We briefly review the literature on social learning in birds, concluding that strong evidence exists mainly for predator recognition, song, mate choice and foraging. The mechanism of local enhancement may be more important than imitation for birds learning to forage, but the former mechanism may be sufficient for faithful transmission depending on the ecological circumstances. To date, most insights have been gained from birds in captivity. We present a study of social learning of foraging in two passerine birds in the wild, where we cross-fostered eggs between nests of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus and great tits, Parus major . Early learning causes a shift in the foraging sites used by the tits in the direction of the foster species. The shift in foraging niches was consistent across seasons, as showed by an analysis of prey items, and the effect lasted for life. The fact that young birds learn from their foster parents, and use this experience later when subsequently feeding their own offspring, suggests that foraging behaviour can be culturally transmitted over generations in the wild. It may therefore have both ecological and evolutionary consequences, some of which are discussed.

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Woodland Mediterranean birds can resist a dry extreme cold wave

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/czoolo/60.4.429 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 60 (4) ◽

pp. 429-437 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sara VilléN-Pérez ◽

Luis M. Carrascal

Keyword(s):

Parus Major ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Cold Wave ◽

Climate Extreme ◽

Blue Tit ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

Wind Chill ◽

Aegithalos Caudatus ◽

Extreme Cold ◽

Rule Out

Abstract The ecological consequences of climate extreme events are still poorly understood, especially those related to cold episodes. Winter cold spells might imperil the energy balance of small passerines, thus compromising their survivorship. Here we analyze how the abundance and habitat use of three tree-gleaning passerine species wintering in a montane oakwood of central Spain at ca. 1,300 m a.s.l. was influenced by the cold wave that hit Europe in February 2012. We monitored temperature, wind and the relative abundance of great tit Parus major, blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus and long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus in 15 plots throughout three periods: before, during and after the cold wave. Our results clearly rule out widespread mortality and temporal migration of the studied passerine populations, as the abundance of these species did not diminish during the cold wave. Moreover, the species usually foraging higher in the tree canopy -and thus more exposed to wind-moved to the less windy woodland plots (long-tailed tit) and reduced their foraging height above ground during the cold wave (long-tailed tit and blue tit), probably to mitigate the deleterious effects of wind chill. Therefore, these forest birds were able to cope with a dry cold wave that was statistically extreme in terms of temperature and wind chill, according to the historic climate records of the region. It seems that, at least when foraging substrates are not heavily covered by snow or ice, Mediterranean birds can resist an extreme cold wave [Current Zoology 60 (4): 429–437, 2014].

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Learning the ecological niche

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2006.3663 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 274 (1606) ◽

pp. 19-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

Tore Slagsvold ◽

Karen L Wiebe

Keyword(s):

Cultural Transmission ◽

Ecological Niche ◽

Parus Major ◽

Early Learning ◽

Ecological Niches ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

Feeding Niche ◽

In The Wild ◽

Cross Fostering ◽

Blue Tits

A cornerstone of ecological theory is the ecological niche. Yet little is known about how individuals come to adopt it: whether it is innate or learned. Here, we report a cross-fostering experiment in the wild where we transferred eggs of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus , to nests of great tits, Parus major , and vice versa, to quantify the consequences of being reared in a different social context, but in an environment otherwise natural to the birds. We show that early learning causes a shift in the feeding niche in the direction of the foster species and that this shift lasts for life (foraging conservatism). Both species changed their feeding niches, but the change was greater in the great tit with its less specialized feeding behaviour. The study shows that cultural transmission through early learning is fundamental to the realization of ecological niches, and suggests a mechanism to explain learned habitat preference and sympatric speciation in animals.

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[Bird predation on larvae of the box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis (Walker, 1859)]

Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia ◽

10.4081/rio.2018.372 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 88 (2) ◽

pp. 45-46

Author(s):

Leonardo Mostini

Keyword(s):

Far East ◽

Passer Domesticus ◽

Parus Major ◽

Great Tit ◽

Pica Pica ◽

Blue Tit ◽

Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽

Haematopus Ostralegus ◽

Nw Italy ◽

Made In

[This paper indicates, by describing their predatory behaviors, seven species of birds observed to catch Cydalima perspectalis larvae; moth infestations widespread in the Far East and accidentally introduced to Europe in 2006, larvae that cause considerable damage to the box tree, Buxus sp., removing all leaves from the area. The observations were made in Piedmont (NW Italy) in 2016 in relation to the Blackbird, Turdus merula and Great tit, Parus major; and in the Holland (Noord Brabant) in 2017 in relation to Oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus; Great tit, Parus major; Blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus; Magpie, Pica pica; Starling, Sturnus vulgaris; House sparrow, Passer domesticus.] [Article in Italian]

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A Novel Approach for Data Communication and Safety Concern in VANET Using Cognitive Radio

International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering ◽

10.23956/ijarcsse.v7i11.499 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 174 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ishu Bansal ◽

Rajnish Kansal

Keyword(s):

Routing Protocols ◽

Intelligent Transportation System ◽

Safety Concern ◽

Data Communication ◽

Intelligent Transportation ◽

Safety Message ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Transmission Of Information ◽

Minimum Delay ◽

Road Side Units

VANET is branch of networking that is used for communication in intelligent transportation system. In this process of VANET various nodes are interconnected to each other and road side units. R2R, V2V and V2R communication has been done in VANET. Due to variouscommunications under VANET routing protocols have overhead for computation of shortest path and transmission of information with minimum delay. Delay in the network cause minimum safety. In this paper an approach has been proposed that can be used for transmission of safety message over the network with minimum delay. On the basis of proposed approach safety message can be transmitted in shortest interval of time so that safety can be achieved in the network.

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