Tutors do not facilitate rapid resource exploitation in temporary tadpole aggregations

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Ecology
• Evolutionary biology

Background:

• Social information use is crucial for adaptation in social animals.
• Its efficiency in temporary aggregations of non-grouping individuals is debated.
• Social cohesion typically aids information transmission.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate social information diffusion in temporary aggregations.
• To determine the effect of conspecific movement on spatial decisions and resource discovery in tadpoles.
• To assess the influence of experienced individuals on social learning.

Main Methods:

• Experimental study on common frog (Rana temporaria) tadpoles.
• Utilized a structured environment and social cues (conspecific movement).
• Compared naive tadpole collectives with collectives containing experienced 'tutor' individuals.

Main Results:

• Conspecific movement influenced spatial decisions and food patch discovery in naive tadpoles.
• Social effects on discovery were negligible when experienced tutors were present.
• Food patch discovery was higher in control groups than tutored groups.

Conclusions:

• Social information use can enhance resource acquisition in temporary animal aggregations.
• Individual differences, such as satiety and experience, can impede effective social information spread.
• This highlights the complexity of social learning in non-grouping animals.