Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own
Abstract Foraging skills influence food intake and could therefore also play a role in mate choice decision. Previous empirical work has shown that individuals benefit from being in groups that include individuals with a variety of foraging skills as this increases foraging success. This idea, forma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Animal Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01923-0 |
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| author | Yuqi Zou Zitan Song Jiani Chen Yuehua Sun Michael Griesser |
| author_facet | Yuqi Zou Zitan Song Jiani Chen Yuehua Sun Michael Griesser |
| author_sort | Yuqi Zou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Foraging skills influence food intake and could therefore also play a role in mate choice decision. Previous empirical work has shown that individuals benefit from being in groups that include individuals with a variety of foraging skills as this increases foraging success. This idea, formalized in the skill-pool hypothesis, may extend to mate choice. Diverse foraging skills can expand the foraging niche of a pair and benefit offspring through enhanced parental provisioning, and exposure to a broader foraging skillset. To test this idea, we trained captive female and male budgerigars to solve one of two different novel foraging puzzle boxes. Then, females simultaneously observed two males that could solve either the same or the other box, and assessed female preferences in a binary mate choice apparatus. Females preferred males with foraging skills that differed from their own, independent of the skill type and the number of times males solved the foraging puzzle. These findings show that foraging skills can influence social preferences, including in a mate choice context, and support intraspecific diversity in foraging skills. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dccd5be785a84896b2316dcb72f48b71 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1435-9456 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-dccd5be785a84896b2316dcb72f48b712025-02-09T12:47:13ZengSpringerAnimal Cognition1435-94562025-02-012811910.1007/s10071-024-01923-0Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their ownYuqi Zou0Zitan Song1Jiani Chen2Yuehua Sun3Michael Griesser4Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of SciencesDepartment for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal BehaviorCollege of Innovation Ecology, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of SciencesDepartment of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal BehaviorAbstract Foraging skills influence food intake and could therefore also play a role in mate choice decision. Previous empirical work has shown that individuals benefit from being in groups that include individuals with a variety of foraging skills as this increases foraging success. This idea, formalized in the skill-pool hypothesis, may extend to mate choice. Diverse foraging skills can expand the foraging niche of a pair and benefit offspring through enhanced parental provisioning, and exposure to a broader foraging skillset. To test this idea, we trained captive female and male budgerigars to solve one of two different novel foraging puzzle boxes. Then, females simultaneously observed two males that could solve either the same or the other box, and assessed female preferences in a binary mate choice apparatus. Females preferred males with foraging skills that differed from their own, independent of the skill type and the number of times males solved the foraging puzzle. These findings show that foraging skills can influence social preferences, including in a mate choice context, and support intraspecific diversity in foraging skills.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01923-0Foraging skillsSkill-pool effectMate choiceSocial preferenceMelopsittacus undulatus |
| spellingShingle | Yuqi Zou Zitan Song Jiani Chen Yuehua Sun Michael Griesser Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own Animal Cognition Foraging skills Skill-pool effect Mate choice Social preference Melopsittacus undulatus |
| title | Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| title_full | Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| title_fullStr | Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| title_full_unstemmed | Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| title_short | Female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| title_sort | female budgerigars prefer males with foraging skills that differ from their own |
| topic | Foraging skills Skill-pool effect Mate choice Social preference Melopsittacus undulatus |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01923-0 |
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