Data from: Testing social learning of anti-predator responses in juvenile jackdaws: the importance of accounting for levels of agitation

Social learning is often assumed to help young animals respond appropriately to potential threats in the environment. We brought wild, juvenile jackdaws briefly into captivity to test whether short exposures to conspecific vocalisations are sufficient to promote anti-predator learning. Individuals were presented with one of two models – a stuffed fox representing a genuine threat, or a toy elephant simulating a novel predator. Following an initial baseline presentation, juveniles were trained by pairing models with either adult mobbing calls, indicating danger, or contact calls suggesting no danger. In a final test phase with no playbacks, birds appeared to have habituated to the elephant, regardless of training, but responses to the fox remained high throughout, suggesting juveniles already recognised it as a predator before the experiment began. Training with mobbing calls did seem to generate elevated escape responses, but this was likely to be a carry-over effect of the playback in the previous trial. Overall, we found little evidence for social learning. Instead, individuals’ responses were mainly driven by their level of agitation immediately preceding each presentation. These results highlight the importance of accounting for agitation in studies of anti-predator learning, and whenever animals are held in captivity for short periods.社会学习常被认为可帮助幼年动物对环境中的潜在威胁做出恰当应对。我们将野生幼年寒鸦（juvenile jackdaws）短暂圈养，以检验短时间暴露于同种鸣声（conspecific vocalisations）是否足以促进反捕食学习（anti-predator learning）。实验为每只受试个体呈现两种模型之一：代表真实威胁的填充狐狸标本（stuffed fox），或是模拟新型捕食者的玩具大象（toy elephant）。在初始基线呈现环节后，研究人员通过将模型与对应叫声配对开展训练：分别为预示危险的成年围攻叫声（mobbing calls），或是暗示无威胁的联系叫声（contact calls）。在无声音回放（playbacks）的最终测试阶段，无论接受何种训练，幼年寒鸦均已对玩具大象表现出习惯化（habituated），但对狐狸标本的反应始终强烈，这表明实验开始前，受试寒鸦已将其识别为捕食者。使用围攻叫声的训练似乎确实引发了增强的逃逸反应，但这大概率是上一轮试验中声音回放带来的遗留效应。整体而言，我们几乎未发现社会学习的相关证据。反之，个体的反应主要由每次刺激前的即刻躁动水平（agitation）所主导。本研究结果凸显了在反捕食学习研究中，以及在短期圈养动物的相关研究中，考量个体躁动水平的重要性。