Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Proc Biol Sci. 2011 Jun 7;278(1712):1736-41. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1610. Epub 2010 Nov 10.
Animals can acquire behaviours from others, including heterospecifics, but should be discriminating in when and whom to copy. Successful individuals should be preferred as tutors, while adopting traits of poorly performing individuals should be actively avoided. Thus far it is unknown if such adaptive strategies are involved when individuals copy other species. Furthermore, rejection of traits based on tutor characteristics (negative bias) has not been shown in any non-human animal. Here we test whether a choice between two new, neutral behavioural alternatives-breeding-sites with alternative geometric symbols-is affected by observing the choice and fitness of a heterospecific tutor. A field experiment replicated in four different areas shows that the proportion of pied flycatcher females matching the choice of the tit tutor consistently increased with increasing number of offspring in the tit nest, to the extent of nearly complete prevalence in one of the areas when tit fitness was highest. Notably, all four replicates demonstrate rejection of the behaviour of lowest-fitness tutors. The results demonstrate both acquisition and avoidance of heterospecific behavioural traits, based on the perceived (lack of) tutor fitness. This has potential implications for understanding the origin, diversity and local adaptations of behavioural traits, and niche overlap/partitioning and species co-occurrence.
动物可以从其他动物（包括异源物种）那里获得行为，但应该能够分辨出何时以及向谁学习。成功的个体应该被优先选为导师，而应该积极避免采用表现不佳的个体的特征。到目前为止，还不知道当个体复制其他物种时是否涉及这种适应性策略。此外，基于导师特征（负偏差）而拒绝特征尚未在任何非人类动物中表现出来。在这里，我们测试了在观察异源物种导师的选择和适应度的情况下，个体是否会在两种新的、中性的行为替代方案（带有替代几何符号的繁殖地）之间做出选择。在四个不同区域进行的现场实验复制表明，随着知更鸟巢穴中后代数量的增加， pied flycatcher 雌性与知更鸟导师选择匹配的比例一致增加，在知更鸟适应度最高的一个区域，这种匹配的比例几乎达到了 100%。值得注意的是，所有四个复制品都表现出对适应度最低的导师行为的拒绝。研究结果表明，基于感知的（缺乏）导师适应性，既可以获得也可以避免异源物种的行为特征。这对于理解行为特征的起源、多样性和局部适应性，以及生态位重叠/划分和物种共存具有潜在意义。
