Jackdaws Switch Friends to Gain Food--but Stick with Family
Published:19 Oct.2023 Source:University of Oxford
Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Bristol presented wild jackdaws with a task where access to tasty mealworms depended on which individuals visited together. The birds soon switched friends to get the best rewards, but they stuck with their offspring, siblings and mating partners (jackdaws pair for life) no matter what the outcome.
At the Cornish Jackdaw Project, researchers monitor hundreds of wild jackdaws, each of which is fitted with a tiny PIT tag--embedded in a leg ring. In this experiment researchers randomly assigned jackdaws to two groups -- A or B--and programmed a pair of automated PIT tag-detecting feeders to provide delicious mealworms only if individuals from the same group (AA or BB) visited together. The jackdaws turned out to be very strategic, quickly learning to hang out with members of their own group and ditching old 'friends' from the other group so they could get the best rewards. However, they made an exception when it came to their close relations.
These results have important implications for our understanding of the evolution of intelligence as they show that being able to track and remember information about social partners can bring benefits. The findings also help people to understand how societies emerge from individual decisions. The balance between strategically playing the field for short-term benefits and investing in valuable long-term partners ultimately shapes the structure of animal societies, including human’s.