Complex dynamics of social learning in groups of wild Arabian Babblers

We studied the effect of a demonstrator on the learning of a novel foraging task in 12 groups of free-living cooperative breeding Arabian babblers (Argya squamiceps). We allowed naïve babblers to forage jointly on a foraging grid with a demonstrator previously trained to solve a task in one of two possible methods: lifting covers of one color or pecking through covers of another color. We found that most group members learned to solve the task using one of the methods, and persisted with it even when later tested with covers of a third (neutral) color that could be opened by both lifting and pecking. However, the method learned by group members did not necessarily follow the method used by the pre-trained demonstrator. Instead, learners within each group tended to use the same method (significantly more than expected by chance), and the extent to which groups differed from the demonstrator was correlated with the extent to which the demonstrator occasionally (and quite rarely) also exhi..., , # Dataset from a social foraging experiment with naive and pre-trained demonstrators in Arabian babblers

All data described below are contained in the file aljadeff_et_al_arabian_babblers_data.csv included in this repository.

For questions or comments, please contact Naama Aljadeff ([[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]))

## General_characteristics

General characteristics of individuals and groups

| Column heading | Description |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| group | The group to which the babbler belongs (12 natural groups of cooperatively breeding babblers were studied) |
| ID | Babbler identity (determined by a unique combi...,