title: The effect of social connections on the discovery of multiple hidden food patches in a bird species.
abstract: Social foraging is thought to provide the possibility of information transmission between individuals, but this advantage has been proved only in a handful of species and contexts. We investigated how social connections in captive flocks of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) affected the discovery of (i.e. feeding for the first time from) two hidden food patches in the presence of informed flock-mates. At the first-discovered and most-exploited food patch social connections between birds affected the order of discovery and presumably contributed to a greater exploitation of this patch. However, social connections did not affect discovery at the second food patch despite its close spatial proximity. Males discovered the food sources sooner than females, while feeding activity was negatively related to patch discovery. Age had no effect on the order of discovery. Birds that first discovered and fed at the food patches were characterized by higher level of social indifference, i.e. followed others less frequently than other birds in an independent context. Our findings provide experimental evidence for the importance of variable social connections during social foraging in house sparrow flocks, and suggest that social attraction can contribute differently to the exploitation of different patches when multiple food sources are present.
authors.affiliation: Lendület Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Plant Protection Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1022, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tóth
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, 35121, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Beniamino
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tuliozi
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baldan
authors.affiliation: Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, University of Veterinary Medicine of Vienna, 1160, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, 35121, Padova, Italy. matteo.griggio@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Griggio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D046370:Sparrows / Q000502:physiology*