Experimental resource pulses influence social-network dynamics and the potential for information flow in tool-using crows.

ABSTRACT: Social-network dynamics have profound consequences for biological processes such as information flow, but are notoriously difficult to measure in the wild. We used novel transceiver technology to chart association patterns across 19 days in a wild population of the New Caledonian crow--a tool-using species that may socially learn, and culturally accumulate, tool-related information. To examine the causes and consequences of changing network topology, we manipulated the environmental availability of the crows' preferred tool-extracted prey, and simulated, in silico, the diffusion of information across field-recorded time-ordered networks. Here we show that network structure responds quickly to environmental change and that novel information can potentially spread rapidly within multi-family

SUBMITTER: St Clair JJH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4659832 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature