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Individual exploratory responses are not repeatable across time or context for four species of food-storing corvid.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Vernouillet, Alizée  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2525-2936
Kelly, Debbie M 

Abstract

Exploration is among one of the most studied of animal personality traits (i.e., individual-level behavioural responses repeatable across time and contexts). However, not all species show clear evidence of this personality trait, and this is particularly so for members of the Corvidae family. We assessed the exploratory behaviour of four food-caching corvid species: pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), California scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica), and black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia). Contextual repeatability was assessed through examining behavioural measures during the Novel Environment task and the Novel Object task, whereas temporal repeatability was assessed by examining changes in these measures over repeated trials. Our results suggest that, for corvids, an individual's exploratory behaviour was not repeatable across contexts or over time. Hence, we found no evidence that exploration constitutes a personality trait for these species of corvid. We did find differences in exploratory behaviour, at a species level, that may be explained by relative reliance on cached food.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Behavior, Animal, Discrimination, Psychological, Environment, Exploratory Behavior, Feeding Behavior, Passeriformes, Social Behavior, Species Specificity

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

10

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC