While many animals use social information to discover novel food sources, the importance of social information availability in the process of learning and remembering specific, fine-scale resource locations remains unclear. Benefits of using social information may vary with an individual’s ability to learn and remember resource locations and environmental conditions. We experimentally tested whether animals use social information from group mates to find and learn resource locations using wild, food-caching mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli). We tested spatial learning and memory performance by tasking birds with learning the location of one rewarding feeder out of eight using two treatments: (1) birds in the same social group shared the same feeder and (2) social group members had to learn different feeders. We found no evidence that access to social information from close social associates facilitates spatial learning and memory as there were no differences in performance between treatments. Most chickadees used personal information to find their feeder, but there were low and similar rates of social information transmission for both treatments. Our results suggest that chickadees use social information from conspecifics regardless of group membership or familiarity but primarily rely on independent learning and personal information when foraging in a familiar area.

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

YouTube video by Selection shapes diverse animal minds

Being a fledgling is difficult—and dangerous. The vast majority (~80 percent) of young birds do not survive this stage, succumbing to predation or starvation. What might give a vulnerable fledgling a ...

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Animals living in highly variable or changing environments face a challenge: each year, conditions during the reproductive season may be different. Do animals such as mountain chickadees living in har...

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