Munch et al_Oecologia_2018.pdf (706.26 kB)
Mate familiarity and social learning in a monogamous lizard
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 17:52 authored by Kirke MunchKirke Munch, Noble, DWA, Erik WapstraErik Wapstra, Geoffrey WhileGeoffrey WhileSocial learning is thought to be advantageous as it allows an animal to gather information quickly without engaging in costly trial-and-error learning. However, animals should be selective about when and whom they learn from. Familiarity is predicted to positively inluence an animal’s reliance on social learning; yet, few studies have empirically tested this theory. We used a lizard (Liopholis whitii) that forms long-term monogamous pair bonds to examine the efects of partner familiarity on social learning in two novel foraging tasks, an association and reversal task. We allowed female lizards to observe trained conspeciics that were either familiar (social mate) or unfamiliar execute these tasks and compared these two groups with control females that did not receive social information. Lizards preferentially relied on trial-and-error learning in the association task. In the reversal task, lizards that were demonstrated by familiar partners learnt in fewer trials compared to control lizards and made more correct choices. Our results provide some evidence for context-dependent learning with lizards diferentiating between when they utilize social learning, and, to a limited degree, whom they learnt from. Understanding the role of the social context in which learning occurs provides important insight into the beneits of social learning and sociality more generally.
Funding
Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
History
Publication title
OecologiaVolume
188Pagination
1-10ISSN
0029-8549Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Springer-VerlagPlace of publication
175 Fifth Ave, New York, USA, Ny, 10010Rights statement
Copyright 2018 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer NatureRepository Status
- Restricted