Personality types vary in their personal and social information use
Gathering information about the environment, such as the location and quality of food, is crucial for an animal’s survival, particularly in a changing environment. An animal can collect ‘personal information’ by interacting with the environment itself, or it can collect ‘social information’ by observing the behaviour of others. The use of these two types of […]
Differences in novel food response between Pongo and Pan
The diversity of great ape diets requires behavioral flexibility. Consequently, the exploration of potentially novel food sources is supposedly beneficial, but simultaneously, apes show high neophobia to prevent harmful and poisonous food intake. Social information, such as presence of group members or observations of non-naïve, experienced individuals have been demonstrated to affect the acceptance of […]
Milk bottles revisited: social learning and individual variation in the blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus
Blue tits are famous for the ‘milk bottle’ innovation, which emerged at numerous sites across Britain in the early 20th century. However, overall we still know little about the factors that foster or hinder the spread of innovations, or of the impact of individual differences in behaviour on social transmission. We used a two-action and […]