Abstract
Animals often copy behaviors from their group mates as copying may be a faster and easier way of obtaining important environmental information. We examined whether Eurasian Coots Fulica atra copy diving behavior from their neighbors, predicting that decision-making in focal birds is strongly influenced by diving activities of close neighbors. According to generalized linear mixed models we used, positive significant predictors of diving events in focal birds for a given moment were the occurrence of diving activities of neighbors up to five body lengths in the previous moment, as well as the interaction between the proportion of diving neighbors and the total number of nearby neighbors. By contrast, behavior of focal individuals was a negative significant predictor; diving activities of nearest neighbors did not reach statistical significance. Our study shows that decision-making of group foragers may be influenced not only by the actions of nearest neighbors but also of a greater number of individuals in their vicinity, as well as their own behavior, which should be taken into account in future research.
Zusammenfassung
Nachahmen des Tauchverhaltens bei Blässhühnern ( Fulica atra )
Tiere kopieren häufig Verhaltensweisen ihrer Gruppenmitglieder, da sie so schneller und einfacher wichtige Informationen über ihre Umwelt bekommen können. Wir untersuchten, ob Blässhühner (Fulica atra) das Tauchverhalten ihrer Nachbarn kopieren und sagten voraus, dass die Entscheidungsfindung bei konkret beobachteten Vögeln von den Tauchaktivitäten ihrer unmittelbaren Nachbarn stark beeinflusst wird. Nach den von uns verwendeten linearen gemischten Modellen waren unmittelbar vorangegangene Tauchaktivitäten von Nachbarn im Umkreis von fünf Körperlängen sowie die Wechselwirkung zwischen der Anzahl tauchender Nachbarn und der Gesamtzahl von Nachbarn positiv signifikante Prädiktoren für die Tauchaktivitäten der beobachteten Tiere zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt. Im Gegensatz dazu war das Verhalten dieser Tiere ein negativ signifikanter Prädiktor, und Tauchaktivitäten ihrer unmittelbaren Nachbarn waren nicht statistisch signifikant mit dem Verhalten der beobachteten Vögel verknüpft. Unsere Untersuchung zeigt, dass die Entscheidungsfindung bei Tieren, die gemeinsam Nahrung aufnehmen, nicht nur vom Verhalten der unmittelbaren Nachbarn, sondern auch von einer größeren Anzahl von Individuen in ihrer Umgebung sowie von ihrem eigenen Verhalten beeinflusst werden kann, was bei künftigen Untersuchungen berücksichtigt werden sollte.
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Data availability
The dataset and recorded material are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.
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This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia.
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IN developed the concept of the study, recorded birds in the field, observed recorded material, performed statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript, DA observed recorded material, performed statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript, ZV performed statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript.
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Novčić, I., Aleksić, D. & Vidović, Z. Copying of diving behavior in the Eurasian Coot Fulica atra. J Ornithol 163, 523–529 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-021-01956-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-021-01956-z