Larger groups of passerines are more efficient problem solvers in the wild.

ABSTRACT: Group living commonly helps organisms face challenging environmental conditions. Although a known phenomenon in humans, recent findings suggest that a benefit of group living in animals generally might be increased innovative problem-solving efficiency. This benefit has never been demonstrated in a natural context, however, and the mechanisms underlying improved efficiency are largely unknown. We examined the problem-solving performance of great and blue tits at automated devices and found that efficiency increased with flock size. This relationship held when restricting the analysis to naive individuals, demonstrating that larger groups increased innovation efficiency. In addition to this effect of naive flock size, the presence of at least one experienced bird increased the frequency of

SUBMITTER: Morand-Ferron J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3179046 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature