Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Porto 4485-661, Portugal.
Biol Lett. 2018 Oct 17;14(10):20180532. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0532.
Species that are able to solve novel problems through social learning from either a conspecific or a heterospecific may gain a significant advantage in new environments. We tested the ability of a highly successful invasive species, the Italian wall lizard , to solve a novel foraging task when social information was available from both a conspecific and an unfamiliar heterospecific (). We found that Italian wall lizards that had access to social information made fewer errors, regardless of whether the demonstrator was a conspecific or a heterospecific, compared to Italian wall lizards that individually learnt the same task. We suggest that social learning could be a previously underappreciated, advantageous mechanism facilitating invasions.
能够通过与同种或异种动物的社会学习来解决新问题的物种，可能在新环境中获得显著优势。我们测试了一种非常成功的入侵物种——意大利壁蜥，当它们可以从同种动物和陌生的异种动物那里获得社会信息时，它是否有能力解决一个新的觅食任务。我们发现，与独自学习相同任务的意大利壁蜥相比，获得社会信息的意大利壁蜥错误更少，而不管示范者是同种动物还是异种动物。我们认为，社会学习可能是一种以前被低估的有利机制，促进了入侵。
