Sequential social information use in foraging great tits (Parus major): unravelling determinants and mechanisms

Animals can obtain valuable information about their surroundings to survive, for example by observing or communicating with other individuals to optimize foraging efficiency. Social information use involves acquiring, applying and exploiting this information. Success at each sequential step depends on individual, social and ecological determinants—shaping when, what and from whom animals copy. In group living animals such dynamics, often linked to sex and age, can affect how individuals locate and exploit food successfully. Despite much research on social information use, the wider understanding is hampered by a primary focus on only one step of the sequence (i.e., exploitation), omitting potential trade-offs at the previous steps (i.e., acquisition, application). Distinguishing between sequential steps is key to identify the selective pressures on the users of social information. To fill this gap, I will study great tits (Parus major), a well-established model species in behavioural ecology with seasonal and resource dependent social patterns. In this PhD project, I aim to 1) address which transmission mechanisms modulate acquisition of social information about food; 2) determine if resource exploitation accurately reflects acquisition and application and vice versa; 3) test how sex influences sequential social information use; and 4) assess how resource predictability influences sequential social information use. To answer these questions, I will combine field and captive experiments (Westerheide & NIOO-KNAW, NL). Proposed methods include automated radio tracking, monitoring feeding patterns using RFID-feeders, acoustic analyses to detect vocalizations, and video-analyses of behaviour in the foraging context. I predict that each sequential step of social information use is differently affected by individual, social and ecological factors. Overall, this project will clarify the determinants of social information use, contributing to broader insights into how social information use animals cope with changing environments.