Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 278, Issue 1705, Pages 619-627Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1562
Keywords
social learning; transmission; diffusion; foraging; producer-scrounger; group
Categories
Funding
- NERC [NE/D010365/1]
- ERC [EVOCULTURE 232823]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/I007997/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/D010365/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- BBSRC [BB/I007997/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- NERC [NE/D010365/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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The degree to which animals use public and private sources of information has important implications for research in both evolutionary ecology and cultural evolution. While researchers are increasingly interested in the factors that lead individuals to vary in the manner in which they use different sources of information, to date little is known about how an animal's reproductive state might affect its reliance on social learning. Here, we provide experimental evidence that in foraging ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius), gravid females increase their reliance on public information generated by feeding demonstrators in choosing the richer of two prey patches than non-reproductive fish, while, in contrast, reproductive males stop using public information. Subsequent experiments revealed reproductive males to be more efficient asocial foragers, less risk-averse and generally less social than both reproductive females and non-reproductives. These findings are suggestive of adaptive switches in reliance on social and asocial sources of information with reproductive condition, and we discuss the differing costs of reproduction and the proximate mechanisms that may underlie these differences in information use. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of adaptive foraging strategies in animals and for understanding the way information diffuses through populations.
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