The role of social and ecological processes in structuring animal populations: a case study from automated tracking of wild birds

Farine, Dan; Firth, Josh A.; Aplin, Lucy M.; Crates, Ross; Culina, Antica; Garroway, Colin J.; Hinde, Camilla A.; Kidd, Lisa; Milligan, Nicole D.; Psorakis, Ioannis; Radersma, Reinder; Verhelst, Brecht; Voelkl, Bernhard; Sheldon, Ben C.

doi:10.1098/rsos.150057

Cited by 100 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…We extend this evidence to a wild population, and demonstrate that the link between sociality and scrounging is robust to fission-fusion dynamics [28], suggesting that stable groups are not necessary for this pattern to occur. Finally, our results suggest that a correlation between sociality and scrounging in fission-fusion populations can still be achieved with tactic-specialized individuals as long as individuals differ consistently in their level of sociability (previously demonstrated in this population [46]), highlighting how interacting individuals can experience different social environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Stable producer–scrounger dynamics in wild birds: sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour

Aplin

Morand‐Ferron

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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There has been extensive game-theoretic modelling of conditions leading to equilibria of producer–scrounger dichotomies in groups. However there is a surprising paucity of experimental evidence in wild populations. Here, we examine producer–scrounger games in five subpopulations of birds feeding at a socially learnt foraging task. Over four weeks, a bimodal distribution of producers and scroungers emerged in all areas, with pronounced and consistent individual tactic specialization persisting over 3 years. Tactics were unrelated to exploratory personality, but correlated with latency to contact and learn the foraging task, with the late arrivers and slower learners more likely to adopt the scrounging role. Additionally, the social environment was also important: at the broad scale, larger subpopulations with a higher social density contained proportionally more scroungers, while within subpopulations scroungers tended to be central in the social network and be observed in larger foraging flocks. This study thus provides a rare example of a stable, dimorphic distribution of producer–scrounger tactics in a wild population. It further gives support across multiple scales for a major prediction of social foraging theory; that the frequency of scroungers increases with group size.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Stable producer–scrounger dynamics in wild birds: sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour

Aplin

Morand‐Ferron

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Social interactions such as these are a kind of predator-predator interaction—and an important one—that we had not considered a priori. Such aggregations are also quite common in a variety of other systems: flocks of birds gathering around successfully foraging conspecifics at experimental feeders (Aplin et al 2015; Farine et al 2015 a ), Komodo dragons cuing in on the volatile blood scent of recently bitten buffalo (Walpole 2001), bats recruiting to each other’s feeding buzzes (Gillam 2007), and so on. Such tendencies to aggregate often override aspects of interference competition that would otherwise prevent grouping behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Hypervolumes of Predator Groups and Predator-Predator Interactions Shape Prey Survival Rates and Selection on Prey Behavior

Pruitt¹,

Howell²,

Gladney³

et al. 2017

The American Naturalist

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Predator-prey interactions often vary on the basis of the traits of the individual predators and prey involved. Here we examine whether the multidimensional behavioral diversity of predator groups shapes prey mortality rates and selection on prey behavior. We ran individual sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) through three behavioral assays to characterize individuals’ behavioral phenotype along three axes. We then created groups that varied in the volume of behavioral space that they occupied. We further manipulated the ability of predators to interact with one another physically via the addition of barriers. Prey snails (Chlorostome funebralis) were also run through an assay to evaluate their predator avoidance behavior before their use in mesocosm experiments. We then subjected pools of prey to predator groups and recorded the number of prey consumed and their behavioral phenotypes. We found that predator-predator interactions changed survival selection on prey traits: when predators were prevented from interacting, more fearful snails had higher survival rates, whereas prey fearfulness had no effect on survival when predators were free to interact. We also found that groups of predators that occupied a larger volume in behavioral trait space consumed 35% more prey snails than homogeneous predator groups. Finally, we found that behavioral hypervolumes were better predictors of prey survival rates than single behavioral traits or other multivariate statistics (i.e., principal component analysis). Taken together, predator-predator interactions and multidimensional behavioral diversity determine prey survival rates and selection on prey traits in this system.

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“…However, it is interesting to consider how social structure might have additionally influenced this process in the wild population. Great tits show a fission-fusion social structure, with extensive mixing and remixing of small foraging flocks (38,39) and with social information moving between individuals via these foraging associations (18,40). It seems likely that this social system might have acted to increase the rate at which the population could flexibly adjust.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Immigrants could be classed only as first year or older on plumage; however, as most individuals disperse as relatively young individuals, in all analyses they were assigned as their youngest possible age based on first capture date. From autumn to winter, birds form loose flocks of unrelated individuals (38,39) with groups aggregating to exploit patchy food sources. In spring and summer, great tits prefer insect prey, but switch to a seed-based diet in winter when insects are less available [e.g., beech mast, Fagus sylvatica (40)].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds

Aplin

Sheldon

McElreath

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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110

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Social learning is important to the life history of many animals, helping individuals to acquire new adaptive behavior. However despite long-running debate, it remains an open question whether a reliance on social learning can also lead to mismatched or maladaptive behavior. In a previous study, we experimentally induced traditions for opening a bidirectional door puzzle box in replicate subpopulations of the great tit Parus major. Individuals were conformist social learners, resulting in stable cultural behaviors. Here, we vary the rewards gained by these techniques to ask to what extent established behaviors are flexible to changing conditions. When subpopulations with established foraging traditions for one technique were subjected to a reduced foraging payoff, 49% of birds switched their behavior to a higher-payoff foraging technique after only 14 days, with younger individuals showing a faster rate of change. We elucidated the decisionmaking process for each individual, using a mechanistic learning model to demonstrate that, perhaps surprisingly, this populationlevel change was achieved without significant asocial exploration and without any evidence for payoff-biased copying. Rather, by combining conformist social learning with payoff-sensitive individual reinforcement (updating of experience), individuals and populations could both acquire adaptive behavior and track environmental change.social learning | animal culture | conformity | Parus major S ocial learning, the acquisition of behavior by observation of, or interaction with, other individuals, is common to many animal species. It provides a relatively cheap way of acquiring valuable information and shields naive individuals from the risks of engaging in trial and error learning. A range of studies have further highlighted the crucial role of social learning in promoting cultural behavior and shared traditions (1-4) and suggested that the cultural inheritance of information across generations may be an important component of the behavioral ecology of some animals (1, 5, 6). However, social learning may also be disadvantageous, if copied information is outdated or mismatched to the observing individual. How individuals balance costs and benefits of social learning has therefore been the focus of much recent research aiming to understand how natural selection has shaped learning (7).The use of social learning "strategies" is one possible route by which animals can combine and filter different kinds of information to optimize learning outcomes (8-10). Here, individuals use social cues, often from multiple conspecifics, to bias learning in favor of better quality information. These include preferences to copy kin or more prestigious or older individuals, as well as conformist and payoff-biased social learning (11,12). Such learning strategies also have implications for the spread and persistence of information in populations and for cultural evolution more broadly (13,14). For example, conformist transmission, here defined as the disproportionate tendenc...

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The role of social and ecological processes in structuring animal populations: a case study from automated tracking of wild birds

Cited by 100 publications

References 61 publications

Stable producer–scrounger dynamics in wild birds: sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour

Stable producer–scrounger dynamics in wild birds: sociability and learning speed covary with scrounging behaviour

Behavioral Hypervolumes of Predator Groups and Predator-Predator Interactions Shape Prey Survival Rates and Selection on Prey Behavior

Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds

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