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. 2012 Oct 22;279(1745):4199-205.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1591. Epub 2012 Aug 22.

Social networks predict patch discovery in a wild population of songbirds

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Social networks predict patch discovery in a wild population of songbirds

L M Aplin et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Animals use social information in a wide variety of contexts. Its extensive use by individuals to locate food patches has been documented in a number of species, and various mechanisms of discovery have been identified. However, less is known about whether individuals differ in their access to, and use of, social information to find food. We measured the social network of a wild population of three sympatric tit species (family Paridae) and then recorded individual discovery of novel food patches. By using recently developed methods for network-based diffusion analysis, we show that order of arrival at new food patches was predicted by social associations. Models based only on group searching did not explain this relationship. Furthermore, network position was correlated with likelihood of patch discovery, with central individuals more likely to locate and use novel foraging patches than those with limited social connections. These results demonstrate the utility of social network analysis as a method to investigate social information use, and suggest that the greater probability of receiving social information about new foraging patches confers a benefit on more socially connected individuals.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Social network for Cammoor/Stimpsons Copse, contrasting the network positions of individuals with differing patch-discovery success. Dark nodes represent individuals who found food patches; numbers inside nodes indicate how many patches found. Increasing node size indicates increasing eigenvector centrality, and edge (line) weight indicates association strength. Edges are thresholded to weights above 0.02.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The relationship between two measures of network centrality and the patch-discovery success (no or yes) in area 1 (Higgins Copse); and area 2 (Cammoor/Stimpsons Copse). For a comparison of the observed and expected average network measures for each area, see the electronic supplementary material, table S1 and figure S2.

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