DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzjm
title: Siberian jays help conspecifics in distress regardless of social familiarity

description: Helping behaviour has evolved across taxa and contexts, and shows
 considerable variation between individuals. While the role of kinship in
 modulating helping is established, recent studies highlight the importance
 of social bonds between actors and recipients. Theoretical and empirical
 work in humans and other animals shows that stronger social bonds can
 increase the likelihood of helping. Here, we assessed the role of social
 bond strength in wild Siberian jays (Perisoreus infaustus). Using
 playbacks of distress calls, we investigated whether individuals responded
 more strongly to calls from those with whom they shared stronger bonds. We
 exposed focal individuals to distress calls from a group member and an
 unfamiliar individual, alongside controls. Focal individuals responded
 strongly by approaching the speaker and vocalising, including producing
 distress calls. Although individuals modulate responses based on caller
 identity in other contexts, they responded similarly to distress calls
 from group members and unfamiliar birds, and responses did not vary with
 bond strength. This indiscriminate response to distress calls suggest that
 Siberian jays either cannot differentiate individuals based on distress
 calls, or respond regardless of their relationship with the distressed
 bird. We discuss how indiscriminate responses can be adaptive in a social
 bird under high predation pressure.
description: # Siberian jays help conspecifics in distress regardless of social
 familiarity Data and code associated with the manuscript "Siberian
 jays help conspecifics in distress regardless of social familiarity".
 Find exemplary playback stimuli (presented in Figure 1 in the manuscript)
 together with their spectrograms in the folder
 "Example_calls_Figure_1.zip". Script
 "Spectral_cross_correlation.R" * Calculates SNR * Calculates
 spectral cross-correlation for each distress call element in the distress
 call recordings. * Find these recordings in the folder
 "WAV.zip". (Note that these are the recordings used for the
 spectral cross-correlation. For the playback experiment, some of those
 were modified (e.g., elements duplicated), see information on this in
 "mydata.csv" - described below). * Uses
 "selection_table.txt" which contains information on the
 beginning/end of each element to be analysed. Script
 "Analysis_distress_2025.R" First part for Results (Tables and
 Figures) for the main text, second part for Supplemental Material (Tables
 and Figures). Description of "mydata.csv": * target.ID: factor
 with levels 1-27, for individual identities * response category: 0-5:
 response strength category (to playback) * treatment: playback treatment:
 "distress familiar" "distress unfamiliar" "social
 unfamiliar" "pine grosbeak". * status_caller: breeding
 status for playback of "distress familiar", "breeder",
 and "non-breeder". * length_call: playback track: length [s] of
 distress call * call_nr_elements: playback track: number of distress call
 elements within track * call_elongated_duplication: playback track: any
 distress call elements duplicated? no/yes, plus number of duplications *
 order: playback order: "exp"=distress familiar,
 "ctr"=distress unfamiliar, "S"=social unfamiliar,
 "P=pine grosbeak" * date: date of experiment * calling: number
 of calls in response to hearing playback (all call-types) *
 calling_distress: number of distress calls given in response to hearing
 playback * min_dist: minimum approach distance to playback speaker (0-5m,
 where the feeding device was placed at 5m) * approach_duration: duration
 (s) staying closer than 5m from the playback * reaction_duration: time (s)
 from first reaction to playback to returning to the feeding station *
 OBS_PerchDurPerEv: measure of social bond before playback of
 "distress familiar": Social Observation before: mean co-perching
 bout length for each dyad, where perching refers to individuals being
 present on the feeding device