Does Innovation Success Influence Social Interactions? An Experimental Test in House Sparrows

Abstract

In group‐living animals, individuals may benefit from the presence of an innovative group‐mate because new resources made available by innovators can be exploited, for example by scrounging or social learning. As a consequence, it may pay off to take the group‐mates' problem‐solving abilities into account in social interactions such as aggression or spatial association, for example because dominance over an innovative group‐mate can increase scrounging success, while spatial proximity may increase the chance of both direct exploitation and social learning. In this study, we tested whether the individuals' innovation success influences their social interactions with group‐mates in small captive flocks of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). First, we measured the birds' actual problem‐solving success in individual food‐extracting tasks. Then, we manipulated their apparent problem‐solving success in one task (by allowing or not allowing them to open a feeder repeatedly) while a new, unfamiliar group‐member (focal individual) had the opportunity to witness their performance. After this manipulation, we observed the frequency and intensity of aggression and the frequency of spatial associations between the focal individuals and their manipulated flock‐mates. Although flock‐mates behaved according to their treatments during manipulations, their apparent problem‐solving success did not affect significantly the focal individuals' agonistic behaviour or spatial associations. These results do not support that sparrows take flock‐mates' problem‐solving abilities into account during social interactions. However, focal individuals attacked those flock‐mates more frequently that had higher actual problem‐solving success (not witnessed directly by the focal individuals), although aggression intensity and spatial association by the focal birds were unrelated to the flock‐mates' actual success. If this association between flock‐mates' actual innovativeness and focal individuals' aggression is not due to confounding effects, it may imply that house sparrows can use more subtle cues to assess the group‐mates' problem‐solving ability than direct observation of their performance in simple foraging tasks.

Explorative innovators and flexible use of social information in common ravens (Corvus corax) and carrion crows (Corvus corone).

“…Furthermore, previous studies with these and other corvid species showed these birds to possess advanced cognitive abilities in both the social and physical domains (Emery & Clayton, 2004), and could therefore reasonably be expected to be able to make such an association. However, in house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ), model identity as an “innovator” following a demonstration of successful problem-solving performance to observers had no effect on their subsequent social interactions with the group ( Preiszner, Papp, Vincze, Bókony, & Liker, 2015). The authors suggested that observers may use other more subtle cues to determine the innovation abilities of their group-mates, rather than direct observation of their performance in an experimental setting (Preiszner et al, 2015).…”

“…However, in house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ), model identity as an “innovator” following a demonstration of successful problem-solving performance to observers had no effect on their subsequent social interactions with the group ( Preiszner, Papp, Vincze, Bókony, & Liker, 2015). The authors suggested that observers may use other more subtle cues to determine the innovation abilities of their group-mates, rather than direct observation of their performance in an experimental setting (Preiszner et al, 2015).…”

Status signalling in male but not in female Eurasian Tree Sparrows Passer montanus

“…poorer condition) among birds with similarly sized throat patches may be more motivated to compete for food, and hence may forage more aggressively and may win more encounters (e.g. Lendvai et al 2004, Preiszner et al 2015.…”

Problem-solving performance and reproductive success of great tits in urban and forest habitats

“…A potential explanation is that increased benefits of solvers may be negated by increased costs in urban habitats. For example, individuals with better problem-solving performance were found to be less competent in agonistic interactions Kozlovsky et al 2014Kozlovsky et al , 2015 or attacked more frequently by their flock mates , although the relationship between problem solving and competitiveness is not unequivocal (reviewed by Griffin and Guez 2014;Preiszner et al 2015;Quinn et al 2016). Thus, stronger competition for food during breeding in urban habitats (Foltz et al 2015) might reduce the reproductive payoffs of problem-solving skills.…”