Learning, evolvability and exploratory behaviour: extending the evolutionary reach of learning

Brown, Rachael L.

doi:10.1007/s10539-013-9396-9

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…Where and when animals learn are important to conservation because these can allow animals to acquire appropriate behaviour without having to undergo genetic change (Brown 2013) and can be used as a tool in conservation management (Custance et al 2002; Whitehead 2010; Greggor et al 2014b; Schakner and Blumstein 2016). However, learning is still under-utilized in most conservation contexts, including species translocations, invasive species control and human-wildlife conflict (Bell 2016; Berger-Tal et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing learning biases is essential for applying social learning in conservation

Greggor

Thornton

Clayton

2016

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Social learning can influence how animals respond to anthropogenic changes in the environment, determining whether animals survive novel threats and exploit novel resources or produce maladaptive behaviour and contribute to human-wildlife conflict. Predicting where social learning will occur and manipulating its use are, therefore, important in conservation, but doing so is not straightforward. Learning is an inherently biased process that has been shaped by natural selection to prioritize important information and facilitate its efficient uptake. In this regard, social learning is no different from other learning processes because it too is shaped by perceptual filters, attentional biases and learning constraints that can differ between habitats, species, individuals and contexts. The biases that constrain social learning are not understood well enough to accurately predict whether or not social learning will occur in many situations, which limits the effective use of social learning in conservation practice. Nevertheless, we argue that by tapping into the biases that guide the social transmission of information, the conservation applications of social learning could be improved. We explore the conservation areas where social learning is highly relevant and link them to biases in the cues and contexts that shape social information use. The resulting synthesis highlights many promising areas for collaboration between the fields and stresses the importance of systematic reviews of the evidence surrounding social learning practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing learning biases is essential for applying social learning in conservation

Greggor

Thornton

Clayton

2016

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Nestlings inherit food preferences from their parents, which mediate local traditions based on their own infancy (Avital and Jablonka 2000 ). Food choice is also affected by the amount of explorative willingness (Brown 2013 ; Carere and Maestripieri 2013 ; Dingemanse and Wolf 2013 ). Dietary innovative taxa are observed to have higher speciation rates (Nicolakakis et al 2003 ), probably due to their greater ability to explore new niches and habitats (Sih et al 2004 ).…”

Section: Speciation In Darwin’s Finchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA Dispose, but Subjects Decide. Learning and the Extended Synthesis

Lindholm

2015

Biosemiotics

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Adaptation by means of natural selection depends on the ability of populations to maintain variation in heritable traits. According to the Modern Synthesis this variation is sustained by mutations and genetic drift. Epigenetics, evodevo, niche construction and cultural factors have more recently been shown to contribute to heritable variation, however, leading an increasing number of biologists to call for an extended view of speciation and evolution. An additional common feature across the animal kingdom is learning, defined as the ability to change behavior according to novel experiences or skills. Learning constitutes an additional source for phenotypic variation, and change in behavior may induce long lasting shifts in fitness, and hence favor evolutionary novelties. Based on published studies, I demonstrate how learning about food, mate choice and habitats has contributed substantially to speciation in the canonical story of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands. Learning cannot be reduced to genetics, because it demands decisions, which requires a subject. Evolutionary novelties may hence emerge both from shifts in allelic frequencies and from shifts in learned, subject driven behavior. The existence of two principally different sources of variation also prevents the Modern Synthesis from self-referring explanations.

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“…We broadly consider all positive interactions and this paper is not limited to any single definition of such behaviors. We do not attempt to identify what proportion of changes in positive associations are specifically caused by changing sea temperatures; however, as temperature has increased in the Scotia Sea and Antarctic Peninsula (Whitehouse et al 2008), and will likely continue increasing, it seems prudent to draw attention to declines in interspecific associations which have the potential to exacerbate declines in individual species abundance (Bronstein 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in seabird abundance are, of course, precipitated by numerous other inter-related factors such as ice cover, prey availability, and fishery mortality, which are exacerbated by rising temperatures (Croxall et al 2002;Tuck et al 2003;Robertson et al 2014;Sydeman et al 2015;Phillips et al 2016;Pardo et al 2017); strikingly, Paleczny et al (2015) report a near 70% decrease in the monitored seabird population worldwide from 1950 to 2010. While such linkages between climate change and species abundance have been well established (Burger 1988;Croxall et al 2002;Forcada et al 2008;Doney et al 2012;Boyd et al 2016a), our paper additionally explores how changes in abundances may impact the number and quality of positive interactions among species (Janzen 1974(Janzen , 1985Terborgh 1986;Bronstein 2015;Veit and Harrison 2017). In seabirds, density of conspecifics has been found to be a better predictor of feeding than prey density (Grünbaum and Veit 2003;Thiebault et al 2016); if a population drops below some abundance threshold, individuals from that population may no longer be present in large enough numbers to facilitate local enhancement, reducing the feeding success of those that previously benefited from such associations (McInnes et al 2017; Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in positive associations among vertebrate predators at South Georgia during winter

2020

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We studied positive associations among seabirds and marine mammals at South Georgia on research cruises during the Austral winters of 1985, 1991 and 1993 and found statistically significant differences. We collected data on abundance and distribution, providing a critical reference for sub-Antarctic conservation in anticipation of future environmental changes. We found significant changes in the abundance of 29% of species surveyed and a consequent change in species diversity. We postulate that the resulting altered community composition may have previously unanticipated population effects on the component species, due to changes in positive interactions among species which use each other as cues to the presence of prey. We found a near threefold reduction in spatial overlap among vertebrate predators, associated with warming sea temperatures. As the strength and opportunity for positive associations decreases in the future, feeding success may be negatively impacted. In this way, environmental changes may disproportionately impact predator abundances and such changes are likely already underway, as Southern Ocean temperatures have increased substantially since our surveys. Of course the changes we describe are not solely due to changing sea temperature or any other single cause—many factors are important and we do not claim to have removed these from consideration. Rather, we report previously undocumented changes in positive associations among species, and argue these changes may continue into the future, given near-certain continued increases in climate-related changes.

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Learning, evolvability and exploratory behaviour: extending the evolutionary reach of learning

Cited by 19 publications

References 60 publications

Harnessing learning biases is essential for applying social learning in conservation

Harnessing learning biases is essential for applying social learning in conservation

DNA Dispose, but Subjects Decide. Learning and the Extended Synthesis

Changes in positive associations among vertebrate predators at South Georgia during winter

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