To Copy, Camouflage or Do Neither? The Role of Asocial and Social Information in Affecting Nest Material Choices of Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)
Creators: Balasubramanian, Gopika
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2022

<p>Animals can use asocial cues from the environment or information obtained from other individuals, called social information to make decisions. Further these different sources of information can be simultaneously available. How do animals evaluate and prioritize asocial and social information sources while making decisions? Here I examined this question in the context of nest building. Nest building is a key reproductive event in the lives of many organisms which in many cases includes making decisions about nest material. Research has shown that nest material selection can come under the influence of asocial and social information. For example, zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) choose coloured nest material that reduces the conspicuousness of their nest against a background (use camouflaging material; asocial information). Zebra finches are also known to copy the material choice of nest-building conspecifics (use socially demonstrated material; social information). However, the understanding of how nest material selection operates in circumstances where both asocial and social information are available is limited. In this experiment I specifically tested how zebra finches made nest material decisions in two circumstances – one in which asocial and social information agreed with each other (Agree group) and another in which asocial and social information were in conflict with each other (Conflict group). In the Agree group, since the socially demonstrated material was also the camouflaging material, I predicted that birds would predominantly use the socially demonstrated (also camouflaging) material to build their nest. The material preference of birds in the Conflict group was expected to reveal whether the birds prioritised asocial or social information while choosing nest material. I conducted the experiment in three phases. First, zebra finch male-female pairs were given an initial preference test among three differently coloured materials and an initially preferred material of the male (primary nest builder) was established. Second, zebra finch pairs gathered social information about nest material by watching conspecifics build a nest with one of the pair’s initially non-preferred colours. In the final phase, pairs got an opportunity to build their own nest against a coloured background cue (asocial information), also of an initially non-preferred colour which either agreed (Agree group) or conflicted (Conflict group) with the social information. I found that in both Agree as well as Conflict groups, observers’ preference for the initially preferred material decreased in the final phase. For observers in the Agree group, contrary to the prediction there was no increase in preference for the socially demonstrated (also camouflaging) material. Observers in the Conflict group showed an increase in preference for the socially demonstrated material and no change in preference for the asocial (camouflaging) material, suggesting that social information takes precedence over asocial information when changes in material preferences occur. The majority of observers also had a preference for green coloured material that might have rendered material preferences less susceptible to change via asocial or social information. Overall, these results suggest that making decisions about nest material when more than one source of information and multiple material options are available could be more nuanced than expected.</p>