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Information transfer and gain in flocks: the effects of quality and quantity of social information at different neighbour distances

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Abstract

We assessed experimentally how the quality and quantity of social information affected foraging decisions of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) at different neighbour distances, and how individuals gained social information as a function of head position. Our experimental set up comprised three bottomless enclosures, each housing one individual placed on a line at different distances. The birds in the extreme enclosures were labelled “senders” and the one in the centre “receiver”. We manipulated the foraging opportunities of senders (enhanced, natural, no-foraging), and recorded the behaviour of the receiver. In the first experiment, receivers responded to the condition of senders. Their searching rate and food intake increased when senders foraged in enhanced conditions, and decreased in no-foraging conditions, in relation to natural conditions. Scanning was oriented more in the direction of conspecifics when senders’ behaviour departed from normal. In the second experiment, responses were “dose dependent”: receivers increased their searching rate and orientated their gaze more towards conspecifics with the number of senders foraging in enhanced food conditions. In no-foraging conditions, receivers decreased their searching and intake rates with the number of senders, but no variation was found in scanning towards conspecifics. Differences in foraging and scanning behaviour between enhanced and no-foraging conditions were much lower when neighbours were separated farther. Overall, information transfer within starling flocks affects individual foraging and scanning behaviour, with receivers monitoring and copying senders’ behaviour mainly when neighbours are close. Information transfer may be related to predation information (responding to the vigilance of conspecifics) and foraging information (responding to the feeding success of conspecifics). Both sources of information, balanced by neighbour distance, may simultaneously affect the behaviour of individuals in natural conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Thomas Valone, Will Cresswell, Jennifer Templeton, Luc-Alain Giraldeau and an anonymous reviewer for their useful comments. The experiments conducted in this study complied with the British laws on animal experimentation. Partial funding was provided by BBSRC grant S13483 to A.K. E.F-J. was funded by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas and “la Caixa” Foundation. A.K. was also supported by a Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin.

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Correspondence to Esteban Fernández-Juricic.

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Communicated by H. Kokko

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Fernández-Juricic, E., Kacelnik, A. Information transfer and gain in flocks: the effects of quality and quantity of social information at different neighbour distances. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 502–511 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0698-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0698-9

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