Who's watching influences caching effort in wild Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri)

Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) often store food and return to retrieve the stored items at a later time. Between caching and consumption, stored food has the potential to be pilfered by conspecific observers. We investigated whether individually marked Steller's jays in suburban neighborhoods of Arcata, California, USA, adjusted cache concealment effort when in the presence of conspecifics. Both male and female jays traveled the shortest distances to cache when alone, traveled further when a mate was present, and traveled furthest when neighbors from adjacent territories were present. These results suggest that Steller's jays recognize and respond to social contexts when concealing food items.