Slagsvold Tore, Wiebe Karen L
Department of Biology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway.
Proc Biol Sci. 2007 Jan 7;274(1606):19-23. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3663.
A cornerstone of ecological theory is the ecological niche. Yet little is known about how individuals come to adopt it: whether it is innate or learned. Here, we report a cross-fostering experiment in the wild where we transferred eggs of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, to nests of great tits, Parus major, and vice versa, to quantify the consequences of being reared in a different social context, but in an environment otherwise natural to the birds. We show that early learning causes a shift in the feeding niche in the direction of the foster species and that this shift lasts for life (foraging conservatism). Both species changed their feeding niches, but the change was greater in the great tit with its less specialized feeding behaviour. The study shows that cultural transmission through early learning is fundamental to the realization of ecological niches, and suggests a mechanism to explain learned habitat preference and sympatric speciation in animals.
生态位是生态学理论的基石。然而，对于个体如何形成生态位，我们却知之甚少：它是先天的还是后天习得的。在此，我们报告一项野外交叉寄养实验，在实验中，我们将蓝山雀（Cyanistes caeruleus）的卵转移到大山雀（Parus major）的巢中，反之亦然，以量化在不同社会环境中成长，但处于鸟类自然环境下的后果。我们发现，早期学习会导致取食生态位朝着寄养物种的方向转变，并且这种转变会持续一生（觅食保守性）。两个物种都改变了它们的取食生态位，但具有较不专门化取食行为的大山雀变化更大。该研究表明，通过早期学习进行的文化传播对于生态位的实现至关重要，并提出了一种机制来解释动物习得的栖息地偏好和同域物种形成。
