PROBLEM SOLVING AND SOCIAL LEARNING IN THE RAPTOR BIRD MILVAGO CHIMANGO (FALCONIFORMES)

BIONDI, LAURA MARINA; BO, MARÍA SUSANA; VASSALLO, ALDO IVÁN

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Meeting of the Internation Society of Comparative Psychology; 2008

Internation Society of Comparative Psychology

Animal innovation and social learning refer to the ability of certain species to cope with environmental opportunities, in instances playing a leading role during the construction of new ecological niches. Recently, the raptor bird Milvago chimango (Falconiformes) have become common in man modified environments and urbanizations, taking advantage of resources generated by different human activities. For this reason, we conducted experimental studies in aviaries which revealed that juveniles and adult individuals behaved rather different in front to novel situations. In general young birds were more explorative, had a lower neophobic response to a novel object and coped with a novel feeding problem --a Plexiglas box filled with pieces of meat; the box being opened and the food reached by pushing, pulling or sliding different lids-- with a better performance and higher success than adult birds. Another test showed that after observing a trained conspecific opening an opaque box filled with meat, naïve individuals acceded the food inside. Previous control sessions showed that naïve individuals failed to recognize the box as a food resource in absence of a conspecific demonstrator. We argue social transmission of newly acquired behaviors are of importance for species inhabiting changing environments or colonizing new areas.