| 1. |
- Forsman, Jukka T., et al.
(author)
-
Mechanisms and fitness effects of interspecific information use between migrant and resident birds
- 2007
-
In: Behavioral Ecology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1045-2249 .- 1465-7279. ; 18:5, s. 888-894
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Interactions with potential competitors are an important component of habitat quality. Due to the costs of coexistence with competitors, a breeding habitat selection strategy that avoids competitors is expected to be favored. However, many migratory birds appear to gain benefits from an attraction to the presence of resident birds, even though residents are assumed to be competitively dominant. Thus far the mechanisms of this habitat selection process, heterospecific attraction, are unknown, and the consequences for resident birds of migrant attraction remain untested. Through heterospecific attraction, migrants may gain benefits if the density or territory location of residents positively reflects habitat quality, and/or they gain benefits through increased frequency of social interactions with residents in foraging or predator detection. In this experiment, we examined the reciprocal effects of spatial proximity on fitness-related traits in migrant pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and resident great tit (Parus major) by experimentally forcing them to breed either alone or in close proximity to each other. Surprisingly, great tits bore all the costs of coexistence while flycatchers were unaffected, even gaining slight benefits. In concert with an earlier study, these results suggest that flycatchers use tits as information about good-quality nest-site locations while benefits from social interactions with tits are possible but less important. We suggest that utilizing interspecific social information may be a common phenomenon between species sharing similar resource needs. Our results imply that the effects of interspecific information use can be asymmetric and may therefore have implications for the patterns and consequences of species coexistence.
|
|
| 2. |
- Seppänen, Janne-Tuomas, et al.
(author)
-
Interspecific social learning : Novel Preference Can Be Acquired from a Competing Species
- 2007
-
In: Current Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 17:14, s. 1248-1252
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nongenetic transmission of behavioral traits via social learning allows local traditions in humans, and, controversially, in other animals [1], [2], [3] and [4]. Social learning is usually studied as an intraspecific phenomenon (but see [5], [6] and [7]). However, other species with some overlap in ecology can be more than merely potential competitors: prior settlement and longer residence can render them preferable sources of information [8]. Socially induced acquisition of choices or preferences capitalizes upon the knowledge of presumably better-informed individuals [9] and should be adaptive under many natural circumstances [10] and [11]. Here we show with a field experiment that females of two migrant flycatcher species can acquire a novel, arbitrary preference of competing resident tits for a symbol attached to the nest sites. The experiment demonstrates that such blind acquisition of heterospecific traits can occur in the wild. Even though genetic variation for habitat preferences exists in many taxa [12] and overlap between bird species likely induces costs [13], this result shows that interspecific social learning can cause increased overlap in nest-site preferences. Conventional, negative species interactions push ecological niches of species apart, but the use of competing species as a source of information counters that force and may lead to convergence.
|
|
