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Food-caching chickadees with specialized spatial cognition do not use scrounging as a stable strategy when learning a
Virginia K Heinen1, Angela M Pitera1, Benjamin R Sonnenberg1
1Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Nevada, Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Graduate Program, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|July 12, 2023
Summary
Mountain chickadees, known for spatial memory, rarely used scrounging behavior when learning foraging tasks. Instead, these birds relied on their learning abilities, not cognitive differences, to find food.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Ecology
- Cognitive Ecology
- Ornithology
Background:
- Social animals exhibit diverse foraging strategies, including producer-scrounger dynamics.
- Cognitive abilities are hypothesized to influence producer-scrounger roles, but scrounging in species with specialized cognition remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate scrounging behavior in food-caching mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) during spatial learning.
- To determine if specialized spatial cognition influences scrounging tendencies in this species.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of seven seasons of spatial cognition data from RFID-enabled bird feeders.
- Quantification of scrounging events in relation to learning a spatial task and environmental factors.
Main Results:
- Mountain chickadees rarely engaged in scrounging, and it was not a repeatable individual behavior.
- Scrounging primarily occurred before birds mastered the 'producer' strategy.
- Scrounging frequency was lower in harsh winters and higher in adults and birds at higher elevations, with no link to spatial cognitive ability.
Conclusions:
- Food-caching species with advanced spatial cognition do not appear to adopt scrounging as a stable foraging strategy.
- Learning abilities, rather than specialized cognitive skills, seem to drive foraging decisions in mountain chickadees.
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