Pinyon Jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) can discriminate between pilfering and non-pilfering conspecifics, but not between heterospecifics.

ABSTRACT: When foraging, individuals often need to assess potential risk from competitors. Within many food-caching (food-storing) species, individuals can modify their caching behavior depending on whether other individuals are present during the caching event. During caching, individuals may interact with not only conspecifics but also heterospecifics. However, the extent to which individual cachers can discriminate between conspecifics and heterospecifics that present a pilfering threat or not, has received little attention. During this study, we examined this issue with food-storing birds, highly social pinyon jays and less social Clark's nutcrackers. Cachers were given a choice to store their seeds in one of two visually distinct trays. Subsequently, one of the trays was given to an individual

SUBMITTER: Vernouillet A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11870924 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature