Abstract
According to the social intelligence hypothesis, understanding the challenges faced by social animals is key to understanding the evolution of cognition. In structured social groups, recognising the relationships of others is often important for predicting the outcomes of interactions. Third-party relationship recognition has been widely investigated in primates, but studies of other species are limited. Furthermore, few studies test for third-party relationship recognition in the wild, where cognitive abilities are deployed in response to natural socio-ecological pressures. Here, we used playback experiments to investigate whether wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula) track changes in their own relationships and the relationships of others. Females were presented with ‘infidelity simulations’: playbacks of their male partner copulating with a neighbouring female, and their male neighbour copulating with another female, against a congruent control. Our results showed substantial inter-individual variation in responses, but females did not respond more strongly to infidelity playbacks, indicating that jackdaws may not attend and/or respond to relationship information in this experimental context. Our results highlight the need for further study of relationship recognition and other cognitive traits that facilitate group-living in the wild, particularly in non-primates and in a wider range of social systems.
Highlights
The social intelligence hypothesis posits that the sophisticated cognitive abilities seen in some species may have arisen due to the selection pressures associated with group living[1,2]
In social groups where relationships persist over time, being able to track the relationships of other group members can be useful in predicting the outcomes of interactions[14]
Females showed some form of response to the playback. These responses ranged from looking at the nest box entrance from a seated position during incubation (“LOOK”, 54% of cases), moving to look out of the nest box entrance (“PEEK”, 25% of cases) and leaving the nest box (“EXIT”, 21% of cases)
Summary
The social intelligence hypothesis posits that the sophisticated cognitive abilities seen in some species may have arisen due to the selection pressures associated with group living[1,2]. Hyenas will join conflicts to support the higher-ranking individual even if the subordinate member of the fighting dyad is more aggressive, implying knowledge of the dominance relationships that exist in the group[24] (but see[32]) Is it important to examine a diverse range of species, and a diversity of social systems – for instance, little is known about the value of third-party relationship recognition in monogamous systems. To address this research gap, we conducted an experiment to test whether wild jackdaws (a social corvid, Corvus monedula) track changes in their own relationships and the relationships of other members of their social group This ability is likely to be useful in jackdaw society: pairs form monogamous bonds and females assume the rank of their male partner in the breeding colony’s strict linear dominance hierarchy[42]. Recent findings suggest that extra-pair copulations may not be as uncommon as previously thought[47]; it may pay females to track their partner’s behaviour
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