Abstract
Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) often store food and return to retrieve the stored items at a later time. Between caching and consumption, stored food has the potential to be pilfered by conspecific observers. We investigated whether individually marked Steller’s jays in suburban neighborhoods of Arcata, California, USA, adjusted cache concealment effort when in the presence of conspecifics. Both male and female jays traveled the shortest distances to cache when alone, traveled further when a mate was present, and traveled furthest when neighbors from adjacent territories were present. These results suggest that Steller’s jays recognize and respond to social contexts when concealing food items.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brodin A, Ekman J (1994) Benefits of food hoarding. Nature 372:510. doi:10.1038/372510a0
Brown JL (1963) Aggressiveness, dominance and social organization in the Steller jay. Condor 65:460–484
Clarkson K, Eden SF, Sutherland WJ, Houston AI (1986) Density dependence and magpie food hoarding. J Anim Ecol 55:111–121
Clayton NS, Yu KS, Dickinson A (2003) Interacting cache memories: evidence for flexible memory use by western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica). Anim Behav 29:14–22
Clayton NS, Dally JM, Emery NJ (2007) Social cognition by food-caching corvids. The western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 362:507–522
Dally JM, Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2004) Cache protection strategies by western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica): hiding food in the shade. Proc R Soc Lond B 271:S387–S390
Dally JM, Clayton NS, Emery NJ (2006a) The behaviour and evolution of cache protection and pilferage. Anim Behav 72:13–23
Dally JM, Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2006b) Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when. Science 312:1662–1665
Davies NB, Krebs JR, West SA (2012) An introduction to behavioural ecology, 4th edn. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford
DeGrange AR, Fitzpatrick JW, Layne JN, Woolfenden GE (1989) Acorn harvesting by Florida scrub-jays. Ecology 70:348–356
Ekman J, Brodin A, Bylin A, Sklepkovych B (1996) Selfish long-term benefits of hoarding in the Siberian jay. Behav Ecol 7:140–144
Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2001) Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies by scrub jays. Nature 414:443–446
Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2008) How to build a scrub-jay that reads minds. In: Itakura S, Fujita K (eds) Origins of the social mind. Springer Japan, Tokyo, pp 65–97
Emery NJ, Dally JM, Clayton NS (2004) Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) use cognitive strategies to protect their caches from thieving conspecifics. Anim Cogn 7:37–43
Gabriel PO, Black JM (2010) Behavioural syndromes in Steller’s jays: the role of time frames in the assessment of behavioural traits. Anim Behav 80:689–697
Gabriel PO, Black JM (2013) Correlates and consequences of the pair bond in Steller’s jays. Ethology 119:1–10
Greene E, Davison W, Muether V (1998) Steller’s jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). In: Poole A, Gill F (eds) The birds of North America, No 343. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, DC, pp 1–20
Heinrich B, Pepper JW (1998) Influence of competitors on caching behaviour in the common raven, Corvus corax. Anim Behav 56:1083–1090
Johnson WC, Adkisson CS, Crow TR, Dixon MD (1997) Nut caching by blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata L.): implications for tree demography. Am Midl Nat 138:357–370
Overeem KR (2013) Extra-pair paternity and sexual selection in the Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). Humboldt State University, Thesis
Pyle P, Howell SNG, Yunick RP, DeSante DF (1987) Identification Guide to North American Passerines. Slate Creek Press, California
Rockwell C, Gabriel PO, Black JM (2012) Bolder, older, and selective: factors of individual-specific foraging behaviors in Steller’s jays. Behav Ecol 23:676–683
Rockwell C, Gabriel PO, Black JM (2013) Foraging dynamics in Steller’s jays: size and viability of cacheable food items. Anim Behav 86:783–789
Shaw RC, Clayton NS (2012) Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, flexibly switch caching and pilfering tactics in response to social context. Anim Behav 84:1191–1200
Vander Wall SB (1990) Food hoarding in animals. University of Chicago Press, Illinois
Acknowledgments
We thank A. Desch for distribution of materials and M. Szykman Gunther for writing suggestions. We appreciate Humboldt State University and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for approval of this work. We are grateful to Dr. Sarah Boysen and an anonymous reviewer for suggestions that greatly improved this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kalinowski, R.S., Gabriel, P.O. & Black, J.M. Who’s watching influences caching effort in wild Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri). Anim Cogn 18, 95–98 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0780-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0780-x