Living in harsh environments: From individuals to social networks
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Authors
Pitera, Angela Michele
Issue Date
2023
Type
Dissertation
Language
Keywords
behavior , caching , chickadee , cognition , foraging , sociality
Alternative Title
Abstract
Animals living in harsh environments are regularly faced with high-risk situations. For example, small-bodied, diurnal endotherms are challenged with high starvation risk in winter conditions when frequent storms and limited daylight restrict opportunities to forage freely. Available food may be scarce during these times, imposing additional constraints on survival. Social species living in these challenging conditions may benefit from group membership through learning about resource locations from their close social associates. Using this social information could indeed allow individuals to find food more efficiently than through independent search, perhaps lowering the risk of starvation. Individuals may differ from one another in their foraging abilities and those with poor foraging abilities may have relatively more to gain from social relationships and social information use. This individual variation may thus influence the overall structuring of social associations under harsh environmental conditions. This structuring may also be influenced by the way individuals partition the time they spend with different associates and the more time individuals spend together, the more opportunities they have to learn about one another. The level of information animals have about conspecifics can allow them to make strategic, informed decisions about social and mating partners.My dissertation work uses comparative and experimental approaches to study the interplay of environmental conditions, foraging behavior, social interactions, and reproduction in a social, small-bodied endotherm, the mountain chickadee, Poecile gambeli. These birds are resident montane specialists who rely on retrieving their previously cached food for survival when resources are scarce. Mountain chickadees are socially monogamous and form stable flocks composed of multiple mated pairs during the nonbreeding season. This presents mountain chickadees with opportunities to learn about their flock mates and potentially maximize the benefits of group living by investing differentially in social relationships. The experience they gain with their social mates over the nonbreeding season may also allow chickadees to decide how much to invest in reproduction the following breeding season. However, through my dissertation work, we have found that, while social, mountain chickadees are overall less choosy than expected. They respond directly to environmental conditions, but do not appear to direct their social and reproductive efforts towards the “best” associates. Rather, it seems that mountain chickadees primarily rely on themselves to persevere in challenging environments.