Nordell poster x abs 2011 for printing

Blue jays affect the caching behavior of eavesdropping squirrels Shawn E. Nordell, Thomas J. Valone, Courtney A. Harrington  , & Tina Mozelewski  Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103 ABSTRACT Individuals can gain important information about their environment by eavesdropping on interactions between others. We examined whether gray squirrels learn about the presence of blue jays by hearing their vocalizations. Because blue jays are important food cache robbers, we predicted that squirrels would modify their caching behavior to reduce cache losses when jays are nearby. Squirrels were provided with a small pile of cacheable hazel nuts placed at the base of a tree in two treatments. In one, blue jay vocalizations were played from a speaker located 15 m from the food. In the control treatment, the songs of American robins, a non-cache robber, were played. We recorded whether each nut was eaten or cached, the distance carried prior to eating or caching and the direction moved relative to the speaker. When jay vocalizations were played, squirrels cached fewer items and carried them farther from the speaker compared to the control. There was no difference in direction moved between treatments. Our data suggest that squirrels learn about the presence of jays by listening to their vocalizations and modify their behavior to reduce the likelihood of losing their caches. RESULTS  indicates graduate student  indicates undergraduate student Acknowledgements: Thanks to the Saint Louis University Animal Behavior Class for working on the experimental design for this project. ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],CONCLUSIONS Squirrel caching behavior is affected by the presence of jay vocalizations: individuals travel farther before caching during jay calls. Squirrels do appear to cache less in the presence of jay calls but additional data are required to better test this. Figure 1 – The squirrels cached fewer food items during jay calls. Figure 2 – The squirrels traveled farther to cache during jay calls (t-test, p < 0.05). Figure 3 - The squirrels primarily cached away from the speaker in both treatments.

Nordell poster x abs 2011 for printing

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Nordell poster x abs 2011 for printing