Bird 'Copycats' Help Keep Tradition Alive

Bird "copycats" that watch and learn from what others around them are doing are helping to keep tradition alive, according to a new study.

"In humans, new traditions arise when novel behaviors spread through social network ties via a process of observational learning. But we really have very little knowledge if similar processes are happening in animal populations," lead author Dr. Lucy Aplin of Oxford University said in a statement. "We were able to experimentally demonstrate that sustained foraging traditions can occur in wild great tits."

Populations of 75-100 wild great tits (Parus major) living in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom were used for this study. In five of the populations, two male birds were trained to slide a puzzle box door either to the left or to the right. In three control groups two males were captured but not trained.

These innovative birds were then released back into the wild, along with puzzle boxes containing a tasty mealworm reward, and electronic tags that monitored their technique.

A year later, follow-up research showed that each population favored the "traditional" method they were first taught by the trained birds, whether it was opening the puzzle box to the left or to the right. Even though only 40 percent of the original population survived, those remaining, both old and new, preferred the behavior that was passed down from generation to generation.

"Our work shows that once a majority in a group adopt one way of doing things these cultural traditions are passed on to the next generation and may persist over years," said researcher Ben Sheldon.

So like humans, animals such as wild great tits can favor one behavior despite other effective ways of doings things, and conform to "cultural traditions."

The findings are described further in the journal Nature.

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