Stealing of dunked food in Carib grackles (Quiscalus lugubris)

Abstract

The use of tool or tool-like food processing behaviours can render animals vulnerable to theft (kleptoparasitism) because (1) large, nutritious items are usually involved, (2) value is added to the food due to long and/or complex handling, and (3) physical control of items is often temporarily lost during handling. In Barbados, Carib grackles (Quiscalus lugubris) immersing items in water before consumption (a behaviour known as food dunking) lose a larger proportion of items to conspecific food thieves than grackles that do not dunk. In this paper, we first show that dunking in Carib grackles functions as a proto-tool food-processing technique that speeds up ingestion. We then examine five potential predictors of kleptoparasitism: only conspecific density and loss of physical control on food were found to influence the probability that birds would be attacked and successfully robbed of food by conspecifics. Grackles could reduce the probability of kleptoparasitism by holding items in the bill while dunking and engaging in head-up displays. These behaviours were used flexibly depending on variation in the risk of kleptoparasitism. We suggest that costs like the ones incurred from theft might limit the profitability and frequency of tool and proto-tool food processing behaviours, creating a context where counter-strategies might be selected.