Effet de la familiarisation avec l'environnement sur le comportement de vigilance de la tourterelle rieuse Streptopelia risoria

Abstract

An experiment on food-deprived barbary doves Streptopelia risoria shows that in a novel environment the subjects give priority to vigilant behaviour over foraging. The trade-off between vigilance and foraging is reversed when the subjects have been familiarized with their environment. Vigilance bouts are long and foraging bouts short in a novel environment, whereas the reverse is true in a familiar environment. These results, together with those of a previous study of the head movements of barbary doves (Cézilly and Brun 1989), suggest that the doves adjust their head movements (and therefore the duration of information gathering) to their familiarity with the environment.