Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023 Jun 5;378(1878):20220113. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0113. Epub 2023 Apr 17.
Individuals of a wide range of species are sensitive to the presence of other species, and can often benefit from associations with other species in mixed-species groups (MSGs) through food-finding or avoiding predation. In an earlier field study, we found that both Carolina chickadees, and tufted titmice, , were better able to solve a novel feeder task when their MSGs were more diverse in terms of species composition. Like most studies of MSGs, however, that earlier study did not experimentally manipulate MSG size and composition. We did that manipulation here, providing experimental flocks of chickadees and titmice with three novel feeder tasks in semi-natural aviary environments. We found that successful titmouse flocks generally had a higher proportion of titmice in them, going against the findings of our earlier field study. Conversely, successful chickadee flocks solved one of the novel feeder tasks more quickly with a higher proportion of titmice in them, corroborating the findings of our earlier field study. We now need to assess socio-ecological influences on MSG size and composition, and how those relate to individual behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue 'Mixed-species groups and aggregations: shaping ecological and behavioural patterns and processes'.
个体的物种范围广泛，对其他物种的存在敏感，并且经常可以通过在混合物种群体（MSG）中与其他物种建立联系来获得食物或避免被捕食的好处。在之前的实地研究中，我们发现，卡罗莱纳山雀和冠蓝鸦都能够更好地解决新的喂食任务，当它们的 MSG 在物种组成方面更加多样化时。然而，与大多数 MSG 研究一样，早期的研究并未对 MSG 的大小和组成进行实验性操纵。我们在这里进行了这种操纵，在半自然鸟舍环境中为山雀和冠蓝鸦提供了三个新的喂食任务。我们发现，成功的冠蓝鸦群体通常有更高比例的冠蓝鸦，与我们之前的实地研究结果相悖。相反，成功的山雀群体中含有更高比例的冠蓝鸦时，它们能更快地解决其中一个新的喂食任务，这证实了我们之前的实地研究结果。我们现在需要评估社会生态因素对 MSG 大小和组成的影响，以及这些因素与个体行为的关系。本文是主题为“混合物种群体和聚集：塑造生态和行为模式和过程”的一部分。
