TY - JOUR
T1 - Voluntary food sharing in pinyon jays
T2 - the role of reciprocity and dominance
AU - Duque, Juan F.
AU - Stevens, Jeffrey R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Amy Ort, Alan Bond, Al Kamil and the EEB Behavior Group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for their thoughtful feedback on many drafts. Particular thanks to Dai Shizuka and Colby Tanner for many comments and assistance with statistical analyses. Lastly, thanks to the Avian Cognition Lab undergraduates (Victoria Contreras, Jasmine Emerick, Sanjaya Roy, Matt Schmitt, Aotian Yang, Vitor Oliveira, Treavor Heeney, Whitney Leichner and Holly Ahmann) who were integral to the entire process, and laboratory technicians Marianna Burks and Jesse Baumann for maintaining the bird colony. This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program funding ( DGE-10410000 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Food sharing offers a clear example of prosocial behaviour, in which one individual's actions benefit another. Researchers have proposed a range of hypotheses that explain why food sharing may occur among unrelated individuals. Two such hypotheses, reciprocity and dominance, have been tested in many species, including fish, corvids, rats, bats and primates, showing that (1) recipients sometimes reciprocate sharing back to previous donors and (2) dominant individuals share more than subordinates. Although primates dominate the study of prosocial behaviour, active donation of food is actually quite rare in primates. In contrast, several corvid species spontaneously share food much more frequently. Here, we explored the role of reciprocity and dominance in spontaneous food sharing among male pinyon jays, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, a North American corvid species that exhibits high levels of social complexity. Unlike much of the previous work, we tested prosocial behaviour among unrelated, non-pair-bonded adults. We observed high levels of active sharing, and donors showed clear preferences with whom they shared. We found no evidence that pinyon jays reciprocated shares in either the short or long term. This was true for both sharing within dyads (direct reciprocity) and sharing irrespective of most recent partner identity (generalized reciprocity). However, dominance influenced sharing in one of our squads, with dominant individuals sharing more than subordinates. This study highlights corvids as a fruitful model for the study of the proximate mechanisms underlying naturally occurring prosocial behaviours.
AB - Food sharing offers a clear example of prosocial behaviour, in which one individual's actions benefit another. Researchers have proposed a range of hypotheses that explain why food sharing may occur among unrelated individuals. Two such hypotheses, reciprocity and dominance, have been tested in many species, including fish, corvids, rats, bats and primates, showing that (1) recipients sometimes reciprocate sharing back to previous donors and (2) dominant individuals share more than subordinates. Although primates dominate the study of prosocial behaviour, active donation of food is actually quite rare in primates. In contrast, several corvid species spontaneously share food much more frequently. Here, we explored the role of reciprocity and dominance in spontaneous food sharing among male pinyon jays, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, a North American corvid species that exhibits high levels of social complexity. Unlike much of the previous work, we tested prosocial behaviour among unrelated, non-pair-bonded adults. We observed high levels of active sharing, and donors showed clear preferences with whom they shared. We found no evidence that pinyon jays reciprocated shares in either the short or long term. This was true for both sharing within dyads (direct reciprocity) and sharing irrespective of most recent partner identity (generalized reciprocity). However, dominance influenced sharing in one of our squads, with dominant individuals sharing more than subordinates. This study highlights corvids as a fruitful model for the study of the proximate mechanisms underlying naturally occurring prosocial behaviours.
KW - corvid
KW - direct reciprocity
KW - dominance
KW - food sharing
KW - generalized reciprocity
KW - prosocial behaviour
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U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.020
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84994593698
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 122
SP - 135
EP - 144
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -