Abstract
Innovative foraging behaviour has been observed in many species, but little is known about how novel behaviour emerges or why individuals differ in their propensity to innovate. Here, we investigate these questions by presenting 36 wild-caught adult male Carib grackles (Quiscalus lugubris) with a novel problem-solving task. Twenty birds solved the task ("innovators") while 16 did not ("non-innovators"). We compared innovators to non-innovators and explored variation in latency to innovate to determine the characteristics of an innovative bird. Innovativeness was not predicted by any morphological trait, but innovators had higher exploration scores and lower object neophobia scores than non-innovators. Within the innovators, latency to innovate was positively correlated with learning speed. Video analysis also revealed a marked difference in the way individuals interacted with the novel apparatus: when innovators contacted the correct part of the apparatus, they continued to do so until they solved the problem. Non-innovators often contacted the correct part of the apparatus, but did not persist in doing so. The importance of obstacle movement cues was confirmed by an experiment where they were manipulated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 274-285 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Behavioural Processes |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 25 Jun 2011 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2011 |
Funding
We thank the staff at Bellairs Research Institute for their assistance. We are grateful to Sandra Webster for preliminary work that inspired this research, and to Martin Frost for his instruction on bird measurements in Barbados. We also thank Frank Cezilly, Remi Wattier and Karine Monceau for DNA sex testing of our birds and Emma Bertran Lheraud and Louise Overington for assistance with video analysis. Comments from Jacinthe Leblanc, Neeltje Boogert, Julie Morand-Ferron, Patrick Leighton and Simon Reader greatly improved the manuscript. We also thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helped improve our manuscript. This work was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant to LL, an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship to SEO, and a travel grant from the Conseil Regional d'Ile de France to LC.
Keywords
- Problem-solving
- Innovation
- Cognition
- Carib grackle
- Quiscalus lugubris
- Neophobia
- Exploration
- Individual differences
- FOREBRAIN SIZE
- PERSONALITY VARIATION
- FEEDING INNOVATIONS
- CAPUCHIN MONKEYS
- CARIB GRACKLES
- HOUSE SPARROWS
- GREAT TITS
- EVOLUTION
- PRIMATES
- BRAINS