Meeting Abstract

P3.157  Tuesday, Jan. 6  The relationship between social rank, neophobia and observational learning in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) AN, Y*; KRIENGWATANA, B.P.; NEWMAN, A.E.M.; MACDOUGALL-SHACKLETON, E.A.; MACDOUGALL-SHACKLETON, S.A.; Univ. Western Ontario; Univ. Western Ontario; Univ. British Columbia; Univ. Western Ontario; Univ. Western Ontario yan4@uwo.ca

Analogous to human personality differences, behavioural syndromes are consistent patterns in behavioural tendencies across varying situations in individual animals. Although studies of behavioural syndromes are becoming more common, few studies connect individual differences in behaviour with social dominance. Black-capped chickadees flock in the winter, and dominance hierarchies are critical to their survival and reproduction. We tested the relation between social rank, neophobia and observational learning in black-capped chickadees and investigated whether social dominance is part of a wider behavioural syndrome. We captured twenty-one chickadees from five different sites in London, Ontario, and measured individual reactions to novelty and individual differences in ability to learn a novel foraging task from a conspecific tutor. The latency to approach novel objects and foods was correlated within individuals which indicates consistent individual variation in neophobia. Social rank was related to latency to approach novel objects and food. Lower ranking individuals were less neophobic, consistent with the characteristic of their dominance hierarchy in which the dominants control preferential access to resources and limit the subordinates to forage in riskier environment. Future work will address whether reduced neophobia and riskier foraging predisposes birds to becoming subordinate, or vice versa.