Social learning in animals is a frequently studied topic, including birds. Great tits belong to frequently tested passerine species in this context. For this experiment we have chosen another tit species as model birds - adult and juvenile blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and coal tits (Periparus ater). We tested an effect of social information on discrimination learning between palatable and unpalatable prey. Red and green artificial prey items resembling shieldbugs with a mealworm glued underneath were offered to birds. One variant was palatable, the other was unpalatable, soaked in bitter substance. Experimental groups were allowed to observe a pretrained tutor of the same species choosing palatable prey variant and rejecting the unpalatable one. The birds were then subjected to an individual discrimination learning task with simultaneously offered palatable and unpalatable prey items. The control group was not allowed to observe tutor and learned only individually. On the following day, all birds participated in a memory test. We tested if social information has an influence on avoidance learning in juvenile and adult birds of both species. We found that both species of tits were similarly successful in discrimination learning and there was no difference in success in performance between adult...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:453538 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Mitlenerová, Barbora |
| Contributors | Exnerová, Alice, Sedláček, František |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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