Wild jackdaws learn to tolerate juveniles to exploit new information

Abstract

Social tolerance can enhance access to resources and is thought to be crucial in facilitating the evolution of cooperation, social cognition and culture, but it is unknown whether animals can optimise their social tolerance through learning. We presented wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula) with a novel social information problem using automated feeders: to access food, adults had to inhibit their tendency to displace juveniles and instead show tolerance by occupying an adjacent perch. Adults learned to tolerate juveniles, generalising across juveniles as a cohort, demonstrating learning of a new information-use strategy. The ability to learn to tolerate those that provide valuable information, and generalise across cohorts of informed individuals, may facilitate adaptive responses in the face of environmental change and help to explain the success of jackdaws in human-dominated environments.