Differences in Individual Learning Between Group-Foraging and Territorial Zenaida Doves

Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (15-16) ◽  
pp. 1197-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Lefebvre ◽  
Pascal Carlier
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Group Foraging ◽  
Learning Differences ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
General Process ◽  
Social Tasks ◽  
Reward Contingencies

AbstractAdaptive views of learning predict that natural selection should lead to differences in specialized learning abilities between animals that face different ecological pressures. Group-living is thought to favour social learning, but previous comparative work suggests that differences between gregarious feral pigeons (Columba livia) and territorial Zenaida doves (Zenaida aurita) exceed the specialized effect on social tasks predicted by the adaptive hypothesis. In this paper, we show that group-foraging Zenaida doves from Barbados learn an individual shaping task more quickly than territorial Zenaida doves from a site 9 km away. These results suggest that the scramble competition associated with group-foraging favours several types of leaming, both social and non-social, and that its effects are more wide-ranging than previously thought. Since genetic isolation between Zenaida dove populations is highly unlikely, the results also suggest that differences in foraging ecology may lead to different learned responses to local reward contingencies as well as natural selection for different genotypes affecting learning. In some cases, the standard comparative prediction of ecologically-correlated learning differences may therefore not distinguish between adaptive specialization and general process theories.

scholarly journals Contrasting approaches to a theory of learning

1981 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Animal Learn ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Critical Function ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
General Process ◽  
Approach To Learning ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Ex Post Facto ◽  
Global Principles

AbstractThe general process view of learning, which guided research into learning for the first half of this century, has come under attack in recent years from several quarters. One form of criticism has come from proponents of the so-called biological boundaries approach to learning. These theorists have presented a variety of data showing that supposedly general laws of learning may in fact be limited in their applicability to different species and learning tasks, and they argue that the limitations are drawn by the nature of each species' adaptation to the particular requirements of its natural environment. The biological boundaries approach has served an important critical function in the move away from general process learning theory, but it is limited in its ability to provide an alternative to the general process approach. In particular, the biological boundaries approach lacks generality, it is in some respects subservient to the general process tradition, and its ecological content is in too many cases limited to ex post facto adaptive explanations of learning skills. A contrasting, ecological approach to learning, which can provide a true alternative to general process theory, is presented. The ecological approach begins by providing an ecological task description for naturally occurring instances of learning; this step answers the question: What does this animal learn to do? The next step is an analysis of the means by which learning occurs in the course of development, answering the question: How does the animal learn to do this? On the basis of such analyses, local principles of adaptation are formulated to account for the learning abilities of individual species. More global principles are sought by generalization among these local principles and may form the basis for a general ecological theory of learning.

Variation in coyote social organization: the influence of prey size

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Don Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Group Size ◽  
National Park ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Mule Deer ◽  
Group Foraging ◽  
Winter Diet ◽  
Average Group ◽  
Average Size ◽  
Average Group Size

The foraging ecology and social organization of coyotes, Canis latrans, were studied in Jasper National Park, Alberta, from 1974 to 1977. Diet was determined from analysis of 1967 feces. In summer when rodents (43%) and neonatal cervids (19%) were the major foods, average group size in the population was 1.4 (n = 339 observations), whereas in winter when large ungulates dominated the diet (67%) average group size rose to 2.0 (n = 798). This pattern was also evident for two packs where mean group size rose from 1.5 in summer to 3.1 in winter with the incorporation of pups into the pack. The percentage of mule deer in the winter diet varied directly with group size. Packs were more successful than pairs or single coyotes in catching mule deer. In contrast, the percentage of elk in the winter diet was independent of group size. Since elk were scavenged, their occurrence in the winter diet was primarily a function of the number dying within each coyote territory. Pairs and packs defended ungulate carcasses and used these clumped resources more effectively than single coyotes. I conclude that group foraging increases the feeding efficiency of coyotes in Jasper. A comparison of the present findings with the results of the other coyote studies indicates that variation in the average size of prey eaten is an important factor determining group size and structure of coyote populations.

scholarly journals Age-dependent diet choice in an avian top predator

2005 ◽  
Vol 273 (1586) ◽  
pp. 579-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Rutz ◽  
Mark J Whittingham ◽  
Ian Newton
Keyword(s):  
Life History Theory ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Breeding Performance ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Foraging Skills

Age-dependent breeding performance is arguably one of the best-documented phenomena in ornithology. The existence of age-related trends has major implications for life-history theory, but the proximate reasons for these patterns remain poorly understood. It has been proposed that poor breeding performance of young individuals might reflect lack of foraging skills. We investigated this possibility in a medium-sized, powerful raptor—the northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis . Male goshawks are responsible for providing their females and their offspring with food. We hypothesized that young males may generally show poor breeding performance or even delay breeding, because they lack the experience to hunt efficiently—especially, their principal avian prey, the feral pigeon Columba livia . Our study exploited a rare ‘natural experiment’, the expansion phase of an urban population, where intraspecific interference was negligible and many young males bred successfully. This enabled us to examine the improvement of foraging skills in a larger sample of young individuals, and in more controlled conditions than usually possible. Using data from individually identified male breeders, we show that, consistent with our hypothesis, the proportion of pigeons in the diet increased significantly with male age, for at least the first three years of life. Other studies have shown a parallel increase in productivity, and a positive effect of a pigeon-rich diet on brood size and nestling condition, stressing the potential fitness relevance of this prey species for goshawks. Our results suggest a causal link between patterns of age-dependence in foraging ecology and reproductive performance. Furthermore, our study is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration that prey choice of breeders, which might reflect individual hunting skills, is age-dependent in a raptor.

scholarly journals Experimental disturbances reveal group-level costs of social instability

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1891) ◽  
pp. 20181577 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Maldonado-Chaparro ◽  
G. Alarcón-Nieto ◽  
J. A. Klarevas-Irby ◽  
D. R. Farine
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Group Foraging ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Living Species ◽  
Important Trait ◽  
Time Away ◽  
Animal Societies

In group-living species, social stability is an important trait associated with the evolution of complex behaviours such as cooperation. While the drivers of stability in small groups are relatively well studied, little is known about the potential impacts of unstable states on animal societies. Temporary changes in group composition, such as a social group splitting and recombining (i.e. a disturbance event), can result in individuals having to re-establish their social relationships, thus taking time away from other tasks such as foraging or vigilance. Here, we experimentally split socially stable groups of captive zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ), and quantified the effects of repeated disturbance events on (1) group foraging efficiency, and (2) co-feeding associations when subgroups were recombined. We found that the efficiency of groups to deplete a rich, but ephemeral, resource patch decreased after just a single short disturbance event. Automated tracking of individuals showed that repeated disturbances reduced efficiency by causing social relationships to become more differentiated and weaker, resulting in fewer individuals simultaneously accessing the patch. Our experiment highlights how short-term disturbances can severely disrupt social structure and group functionality, revealing potential costs associated with group instability that can have consequences for the evolution of animal societies.

scholarly journals Chronotype variation drives night-time sentinel-like behaviour in hunter–gatherers

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1858) ◽  
pp. 20170967 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Samson ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Ibrahim A. Mabulla ◽  
Audax Z. P. Mabulla ◽  
Charles L. Nunn
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Age Classes ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Mixed Age

Sleep is essential for survival, yet it also represents a time of extreme vulnerability to predation, hostile conspecifics and environmental dangers. To reduce the risks of sleeping, the sentinel hypothesis proposes that group-living animals share the task of vigilance during sleep, with some individuals sleeping while others are awake. To investigate sentinel-like behaviour in sleeping humans, we investigated activity patterns at night among Hadza hunter–gatherers of Tanzania. Using actigraphy, we discovered that all subjects were simultaneously scored as asleep for only 18 min in total over 20 days of observation, with a median of eight individuals awake throughout the night-time period; thus, one or more individuals was awake (or in light stages of sleep) during 99.8% of sampled epochs between when the first person went to sleep and the last person awoke. We show that this asynchrony in activity levels is produced by chronotype variation, and that chronotype covaries with age. Thus, asynchronous periods of wakefulness provide an opportunity for vigilance when sleeping in groups. We propose that throughout human evolution, sleeping groups composed of mixed age classes provided a form of vigilance. Chronotype variation and human sleep architecture (including nocturnal awakenings) in modern populations may therefore represent a legacy of natural selection acting in the past to reduce the dangers of sleep.

Review Lecture - The study of mother-infant interaction in captive group-living rhesus monkeys

1968 ◽  
Vol 169 (1015) ◽  
pp. 177-201 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Captive Group ◽  
Adult Personality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
Physiological Research

Although the influence of early social environment on man’s adult personality is now well recognized, little is known about the precise nature of the effects. One reason for this is the ethical impossibility of applying certain experimental techniques to human subjects. The question thus arises, can subhuman primates be used instead? Although they are much used in physiological research, and much is know nabout their learning abilities (e.g. Schrier, Harlow & Stollnitz 1965), only recently have they come to be used to study ‘personality’ development (Harlow & Harlow 1965). There are three main objections to their use: (i) It is argued that man’s superior intellectual capacities indicate that his behavioural development is different in kind from that of monkeys, and that the social factors which influence it have a unique nature. This, however, is a matter for empirical investigation. While it is certainly true in many ways, neither the similarities nor the differences between the psychological development of man and monkeys can be assessed until more is known about both. (ii) The social structures of subhuman species, and hence the social environment of the growing young, differ both among themselves and from those found in human societies. Cross-species generalizations thus demand extreme caution.

scholarly journals Boldness traits, not dominance, predict exploratory flight range and homing behaviour in homing pigeons

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1727) ◽  
pp. 20160234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Portugal ◽  
Rhianna L. Ricketts ◽  
Jackie Chappell ◽  
Craig R. White ◽  
Emily L. Shepard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Homing Pigeons ◽  
Laboratory Conditions ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Spontaneous Exploration ◽  
The Individual

Group living has been proposed to yield benefits that enhance fitness above the level that would be achieved through living as solitary individuals. Dominance hierarchies occur commonly in these social assemblages, and result, by definition, in resources not being evenly distributed between group members. Determinants of rank within a dominance hierarchy can be associated with morphological characteristics, previous experience of the individual, or personality traits such as exploration tendencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether greater exploration and positive responses to novel objects in homing pigeons ( Columba livia ) measured under laboratory conditions were associated with (i) greater initial exploration of the local area around the home loft during spontaneous exploration flights (SEF), (ii) faster and more efficient homing flights when released from further afield, and (iii) whether the traits of greater exploration and more positive responses to novel objects were more likely to be exhibited by the more dominant individuals within the group. There was no relationship between laboratory-based novel object exploration and position within the dominance hierarchy. Pigeons that were neophobic under laboratory conditions did not explore the local area during SEF opportunities. When released from sites further from home, neophobic pigeons took longer routes to home compared to those birds that had not exhibited neophobic traits under laboratory conditions, and had spontaneously explored to a greater extent. The lack of exploration in the neophobic birds is likely to have resulted in the increased costs of homing following release: unfamiliarity with the landscape likely led to the greater distances travelled and less efficient routes taken. Birds that demonstrated a lack of neophobia were not the dominant individuals inside the loft, and thus would have less access to resources such as food and potentially mates. However, a lack of neophobia makes the subordinate position possible, because subordinate birds that incur high travel costs would become calorie restricted and lose condition. Our results address emerging questions linking individual variation in behaviour with energetics and fitness consequences. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.

scholarly journals Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Valentini ◽  
Theodore P Pavlic ◽  
Sara Imari Walker ◽  
Stephen C Pratt ◽  
Dora Biro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Living ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Collective Learning ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Information Pooling ◽  
Migratory Routes ◽  
Route Information ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Exploration Exploitation ◽  
Different Levels

Group-living animals that rely on stable foraging or migratory routes can develop behavioural traditions to pass route information down to inexperienced individuals. Striking a balance between exploitation of social information and exploration for better alternatives is essential to prevent the spread of maladaptive traditions. We investigated this balance during cumulative route development in the homing pigeon Columba livia. We quantified causal interactions within pairs of birds in a transmission-chain experiment and determined how birds with different levels of experience contributed to the exploration–exploitation trade-off. Newly introduced naïve individuals were initially more likely to initiate exploration than experienced birds, but the pair soon settled into a pattern of alternating leadership with both birds contributing equally. Experimental pairs showed an oscillating pattern of exploration over generations that might facilitate the discovery of more efficient routes. Our results introduce a new perspective on the roles of leadership and information pooling in the context of collective learning.

Is Group-Living Associated With Social Learning? a Comparative Test of a Gregarious and a Territorial Columbid

Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 241-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Lefebvre ◽  
Boris Palameta ◽  
Karen K. Hatch
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Columba Livia ◽  
Interspecific Differences ◽  
Feral Pigeons ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Territorial Organization ◽  
Zenaida Aurita ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

AbstractGroup-living is often thought to be associated with social learning. Comparative tests are useful in evaluating the link between ecological variables and learning specializations, but controls are required to guard against possible confounding variables. In this paper, we test the association between group-living and social learning by comparing two opportunistic, urbanized, Columbids in a set of experiments involving shaping and individual learning controls. In part 1, we provide quantitative field data on foraging group size for the two species, the feral pigeon (Columba livia) studied in central Montréal and the Zenaida dove (Zenaida aurita) studied in coastal Barbados. The data confirm anecdotal reports that contrast the gregarious social organization of C. livia with the territorial organization of coastal Z. aurita. In part 2, we test pigeons and Zenaida doves on two food-finding tasks and show (1) that feral pigeons are better than Zenaida doves at solving all variants of the tasks presented, whether individually or socially learned, and (2) that once general species differences are taken into account, territorial Zenaida doves are not less efficient than gregarious feral pigeons at using food-finding information provided by a conspecific tutor. The results do not support the association between group-living and social learning and show that procedures like shaping and control variants of the task may help interpret interspecific differences in learning.

Game Theory in Biology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. McNamara ◽  
Olof Leimar
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Animal Psychology ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Game theory in biology seeks to predict social behaviour and other traits that influence how individuals interact. It does this by tentatively assuming that current traits are stable endpoints of evolution by natural selection. The theory is used to model aggressive behaviour, cooperation, negotiation, and signalling, as well as phenotypic attributes like an individual’s sex and mating type. This book covers the basic concepts and the traditional examples of biological game theory. It expands the frontiers of the field, emphasizing the importance of the co-evolution of traits and the implications of variation for reputation, markets, negotiation, and other social phenomena. It also highlights that it can be important to embed game interactions in the environment and an individual’s life. A major new direction developed in the book is that game theory can be extended by incorporating behavioural mechanisms, including mechanisms of reinforcement learning. By doing this the theory can successfully describe important phenomena like social dominance in group-living animals that previously have been difficult to model. By focusing on behavioural mechanisms, game theory can also make closer contact with empirical observation and with current research in fields like animal psychology and neuroscience.

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