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Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits — a laboratory study

Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits — a laboratory study Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits — a laboratory study Lucinda H. Male & Tom V. Smulders 1) (Newcastle University, Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Henry Wellcome Building for Neuroecology, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, United Kingdom) (Accepted: 21 April 2007) Summary Many animals use hoarding as a long-term strategy to ensure a food supply at times of short- age. This study explores the respective roles of memory and site preferences in cache recovery by coal tits ( Periparus ater ). We compared the retrieval accuracy or foraging efficiency of the cacher itself (‘caching coal tit’), a naive conspecific (‘pilfering coal tit’) and a non-hoarding heterospecific (‘pilfering great tit’; Parus major ) after six different retention intervals. Our experiment shows that the persistence of the coal tits’ memory is up to 4 weeks in the lab- oratory. Species specific storage and foraging site preferences enhance cache recovery after longer intervals. We find no evidence for individual-specific preferences. Pilfering great tits are capable of learning the coal tits’ hoarding preferences. This ability may affect coal tits’ hoarding behaviour in more natural conditions as they frequently forage in mixed flocks with great tits. Keywords : http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behaviour Brill

Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits — a laboratory study

Male, Lucinda; Smulders, Tom
Behaviour , Volume 144 (6): 18 – Jan 1, 2007
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0005-7959
eISSN
1568-539X
DOI
10.1163/156853907781347808
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Memory decay and cache site preferences in hoarding coal tits — a laboratory study Lucinda H. Male & Tom V. Smulders 1) (Newcastle University, Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Henry Wellcome Building for Neuroecology, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, United Kingdom) (Accepted: 21 April 2007) Summary Many animals use hoarding as a long-term strategy to ensure a food supply at times of short- age. This study explores the respective roles of memory and site preferences in cache recovery by coal tits ( Periparus ater ). We compared the retrieval accuracy or foraging efficiency of the cacher itself (‘caching coal tit’), a naive conspecific (‘pilfering coal tit’) and a non-hoarding heterospecific (‘pilfering great tit’; Parus major ) after six different retention intervals. Our experiment shows that the persistence of the coal tits’ memory is up to 4 weeks in the lab- oratory. Species specific storage and foraging site preferences enhance cache recovery after longer intervals. We find no evidence for individual-specific preferences. Pilfering great tits are capable of learning the coal tits’ hoarding preferences. This ability may affect coal tits’ hoarding behaviour in more natural conditions as they frequently forage in mixed flocks with great tits. Keywords :

Journal

Behaviour – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2007

Keywords: LEARNING; GREAT TIT; PERSISTENCE; MEMORY; FOOD-HOARDING; COAL TIT; PREFERENCES

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