Social competence, information-use, and cognition in jackdaws

Abstract

The dynamic nature of social life can generate uncertainty. To reduce this uncertainty and make adaptive decisions, animals may use cognition to gather and process information. Indeed, the challenges posed by living with others has been suggested to be a large driver of cognitive evolution, a theory known as the Social Intelligence Hypothesis. In this thesis I test some of these key predictions through experiments on a population of wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula), following an information gradient from gathering and learning about others, to learning from others. In Chapter 2, I test the informational challenges dominance interactions present jackdaws, demonstrating the uncertainty that exists within dominance relationships in a large open society. In Chapter 3 I use automated experiments to show that jackdaws flexibly alter their social associations to maximise foraging rewards, but this flexibility is constrained by the need to maintain existing relationships. In Chapter 4 I go on to demonstrate that adult jackdaws can learn to tolerate juveniles, enabling the general implementation of a new social information-use strategy. Finally, Chapter 5 demonstrates how natural competitive dynamics and generalisation of information impede cultural formation. Together, my results highlight the uncertainty provided by both competitive and affiliative interactions within jackdaw society. In response, jackdaws demonstrate high levels of social flexibility, with birds able to learn about the value of others and adaptively change their behaviour and therefore demonstrate high social competence. Across experiments jackdaws generalised both social and asocial stimuli, which allowed rapid responses to new situations. This generalisation ability, alongside the competition within the population, also contributed to a lack of cultural formation of novel food choice. My findings demonstrate that jackdaws live in a dynamic, informationally challenging social setting, with flexible socio-cognition used to navigate and thrive within jackdaw society.