Does father know best? Social learning from kin and non-kin in juvenile ringdoves
Introduction
One of the major pathways for cultural (or social) learning is commonly throught to be parent-offspring transmission. Mathematical models routinely underline the importance of this mode of transmission (termed `vertical transmission'; Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, 1981, Pulliam, 1983), while experiments on laboratory-raised rodents have brought to light maternal influences on offspring diet (Galef, 1977, Valsecchi et al., 1993). Numerous field studies describe adult-juvenile associations that are indirectly presumed to promote learning (Davies, 1976, Skutch, 1976, Diamond, 1987), but those specifically testing for parent-offspring transmission are rare. Descriptive reports on chimpanzees suggest that juveniles learn to fish for termites by observing adults (Goodall, 1973). In oystercatchers, cross-fostering experiments have shown that offspring may learn mussel-opening techniques by copying the variant used by their parent (Norton-Griffiths, 1968). More recently, (Aisner and Terkel, 1992) have reported that black rats learn to open pine cones through exposure to partially-opened ones stripped by their mothers.
In all of these cases, the relative importance of parents versus non-parents as tutors is not specifically addressed. In a laboratory study, (Chesler, 1969) has examined preferential social learning in kittens and found that learning from the mother is more rapid than learning from an unfamiliar, unrelated adult. These results are intriguing, but the design used by Chesler unfortunately confounds familiarity with kinship, a problem that may be difficult to avoid in a nongregarious species. In a group-living animal, juveniles will routinely be exposed to kin and nonkin as potential informers. The young of territorial species may also show frequent learning from their parents, but in the absence of any alternative source of information (non-parents are chased from the territory), it is impossible to argue for preferential learning. The most stringent test of parent-offspring transmission thus lies in group-living animals, where the efficiency of parent versus non-parent tutors for juvenile social learning can be directly compared.
Ringdoves (Streptopelia risoria) are a good candidate to study preferential learning from the parent in captive experiments, since they are not only gregarious, but are also easy to breed. The ringdove is a domesticated descendant of African collared doves, S. roseogrisea (Irwin, 1959, Goodwin, 1983), which are known to forage in small flocks in West Africa (Morel, 1983). Although ringdoves are for the most part a domesticated species, feral colonies have been established in a few localities of the southern USA (Goodwin, 1983). In this paper, we test for preferential social learning from the parent by giving laboratory-raised juvenile ringdoves the choice between copying their father or a familiar, unrelated flock member. We look at two key components of foraging behaviour: the learning of new searching and handling techniques and the ingestion of novel food types. To derive predictions for these learning experiments, we first examine foraging interactions between juvenile rindgdoves, their parents and unrelated adults housed together in free-flight aviaries. In the field, foraging interactions have proven to be an excellent predictor of preferential social learning in an opportunistic avian guild: three populations of Zenaida doves (Zenaida aurita) and one population of Carib grackles (Quiscalus lugubris) in Barbados show a striking relationship between intra-and interspecific use of scramble (unaggressive) feeding competiton and social learning (Lefebvre, 1996). Territorial Z. aurita from St-James are extremely aggressive against conspecific intruders, but forage unaggressively with grackles; in captive learning experiments, territorial doves learn very poorly from conspecific tutors, but very well from grackles (Lefebvre et al., 1996, Dolman et al., 1996). In contrast, group living Zenaida doves from the Barbados Deep Water Harbour feed in homospecific flocks, but rarely forage with grackles; they learn readily from a dove tutor, but not from a grackle (Dolman et al., 1996). Zenaida doves from a site adjacent to the harbour, Brandon's Beach, show an intermediate social foraging pattern and encounter both small flocks of conspecifics and grackles in high density food conditions: they learn as readily from conspecific and grackle tutors (Carlier and Lefebvre, in press). Finally, grackles use scramble competition against both conspecifics and Zenaida doves; they learn as readily from either tutor type (Lefebvre et al., in pressRusson et al., in press).
We use this comparative ecological framework to link foraging interactions with social learning in juvenile S. risoria and show that ringdoves learn as readily from their father as they do from a familiar non-kin adult, consistent with the unaggressive scramble competiton they show against both types of birds.
Section snippets
Methods
Thirty-two juveniles were used in this part of the study; all were bred in our laboratory. Pairs of adults were placed in breeding cages (38×60×38 cm) which contained a perch and a nest bowl (14.5 cm in diameter) filled with pigeon grit. Breeding pairs were visually isolated from other pairs. Food (a commercial mixture of seed) and water was provided ad libitum. Once a clutch had hatched, any subsequent eggs laid by the mother during the test period were removed. Offspring were raised by their
General methods
A total of 22 juvenile ringdoves were used in these experiments, different from the ones featured in the aviary study. All birds were bred and raised in our laboratory under conditions described in the previous section. When they were 3–4 weeks old, subjects were transferred to a free-flight aviary, where they remained in the company of their parents, their sibling (when present) and a pair of non-breeding adults that were unrelated to the juvenile. This procedure was designed to familiarize
Methods
The foods were flax (Linum usitatissimum) and canary seed (Phalaris canariensis), which are approximately the same size but differ in colour. Two days prior to the experiment, tutors were removed from the aviary, placed in individual cages and allowed free access to their particular seed type to give them experience with it. Once tutors readily ate the new food (within 1/2–1 h), they were returned to the aviary.
Each juvenile was given eight 3 min trials. On each trial, observers were
Methods
In the second experiment, juveniles were required to open either the lid or the drawer from a 5.5×5.7×5.0 cm opaque plexiglas box containing 20 millet seeds in each of the two sections. For any given juvenile, lid lifting was demonstrated by one of its tutors and drawer pulling by the other one. Both the lid and the drawer were equipped with identical metal rings which the doves could grasp with their beaks.
The 22 juveniles were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, tutored (T) or
General discussion
The results of the choice-test experiments revealed (1) a significant effect of two non-social variables, seed type eaten throughout the experiments and section of the apparatus first pecked at; (2) a significant effect of tutoring on opening (but not pecking attempts) in the box task; (3) no significant effect of tutor type in either experiment. In the two experiments, physical variables (flax and drawer) thus had a stronger influence than social ones. The aviary observations showed that
Acknowledgements
We thank Carrie Dolman and Lucie Robidoux for their help in analysing the videotapes and caring for the birds. This work was supported by an NSERC grant to L. Lefebvre and an FCAR fellowship to Karen K. Hatch
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