Individual differences in the use of social information in foraging by captive great tits

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 131 - 140
• Main Authors: Marchetti, Chiara, Drent, Piet J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2000; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Aves; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Parus major; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Vertebrata; Feeding behavior; Intraspecific relation; Exploratory behavior; Male; Social learning; Foraging behavior; Vertebrata; Acquisition process; Social interaction; Food intake; Interindividual comparison; Captivity; Strategy; Aves; Parus major
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.2000.1443

We investigated individual differences in copying behaviour of captive great tits, Parus major, by analysing their response to a tutor indicating a new feeding site. We used two groups, each of seven male birds, labelled ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ explorers based on previous studies in which consistent individual differences in the speed of exploring were found. The birds were trained to search for food hidden in a number of differently coloured and shaped feeders, and later to search in only one type of feeder. During the tests, food was absent and the birds were observed in two different situations: alone or in the presence of a tutor, a bird that had been trained to feed in a different kind of feeder. When alone, slow birds readily extended their search to other feeders while fast birds did not change their routine of visiting the previously rewarded ones. In the presence of the tutor, the opposite occurred: slow birds did not change their behaviour while fast birds significantly increased their visits to the feeders indicated by the tutor. Fast and slow individuals thus differ in their foraging and copying behaviour, consistent with the producer–scrounger model.