Data from: Innovative consumers: ecological, behavioral and physiological predictors of responses to novel food

Consumer innovation, i.e. the acquisition and consumption of novel food
types, has received little attention despite its predominance among animal
innovations, and its potential implications for the ecology and evolution
of species in a changing world. Results of the few studies that have
investigated individual responses to novel foods suggest that various
ecological, behavioral, and physiological variables may impact individual
propensity for consumer innovation, but further work is needed to clarify
these relationships. We investigated if urbanization, social rank,
exploratory personality, and baseline levels of corticosterone predict
food neophobia and consumer innovation responses of wild-caught
black-capped chickadees (N=170) from 14 sites along an urbanization
gradient. Our analyses do not support a link between food neophobia or
consumer innovation and urbanization, dominance or exploratory
personality. However, birds with higher levels of baseline corticosterone
were quicker to contact novel food types, and more likely to consume novel
foods than individuals with lower levels of the hormone. This finding
suggests that physiological states that promote foraging behavior might
drive individual responses to novel food. Additionally, we found that
chickadees tested later in autumn were less neophobic than those tested
earlier in the season, perhaps reflecting seasonal changes in food
availability. Together, the ability of baseline corticosterone and date of
capture to predict responses to novel food suggest that necessity may
drive consumer innovation in chickadees.