Great tits and bad food

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Great tits and bad food

Post by cronus » Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:52 am

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/grea ... d-bad-food

Great tits and bad food

Birds can learn to avoid unpalatable food simply by watching other birds attempt to eat it on television.

The discovery – by a team led by Rose Thorogood, from the UK University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology – is not only startling in its own right, but also solves one of the lingering issues related to the role of warning colouration in predator-prey interactions.

It’s long been established that many types of prey species – including insects, amphibians and fish – signal their own toxicity through bright colouration. The colours, the theory runs, serve to warn potential predators that eating a particular animal will have unpleasant and counter-productive consequences.

The idea is sound, and well supported by evidence of toxicity in brightly coloured species, but it does beg a question. How does a predator learn about the warning signs without first eating the brightly coloured prey – an action that can lead to the death of both participants, thus rendering the lesson utterly pointless?

The new research by Thorogood and her colleagues provides an answer. In birds known as great tits (Parus major), at least, individuals learn by observing the unfortunate experiences of their peers and avoid repeating them.

To demonstrate this, the scientists used a number of wild-caught birds and kept them in aviaries that were decorated with bits of white paper dotted with small black crosses. Some of these bits of paper were wrapped around slices of almond, filling the function of camouflaged prey. The birds quickly learned to unwrap them and devour the food.

In the next phase, one tit was encouraged to unwrap a piece of paper decorated with a black square – a food source much more conspicuous than the cross-decorated ones. This little parcel contained almond dipped in foul-tasting bitter liquid. After trying it the unfortunate bird made its displeasure known, by shaking its head and wiping its beak.

Thorogood’s team filmed this unpleasant encounter and then replayed the footage to some, but not all, of the rest of the tits.

After seeing the material, the exposed birds were 32% less likely to try to eat the contents of a conspicuously marked food package than those which had not viewed the scene.

Thorogood calls this type of learning “social transmission”.

(continued)
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by JimC » Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:54 am

I thought this was going to be about large mammaries and Brussel sprouts... :nono:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by pErvinalia » Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:32 am

Or Nigella Lawson... :whistle:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Hermit » Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:21 am

pErvinalia wrote:Or Nigella Lawson... :whistle:
Oh, Nigella Lawson? Forget about food. I'd just eat her. :grr:

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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Rum » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:12 pm

I best she's a tad sloppy..

While we are on the subject I personally hate the word 'eat' in reference to cunnilingus (not that I like that word either). It conjures up a really ghastly image. Just sayin'

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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by pErvinalia » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:17 pm

Hermit meant 'eat' as in cannibalism. He's German, after all..
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Rum » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:37 pm

pErvinalia wrote:Hermit meant 'eat' as in cannibalism. He's German, after all..
I actually thought he did, but also being German he should have been precise in what he intended to communicate don't you agree? :prof:

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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by pErvinalia » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:46 pm

Good point. But vee haf to take ze Chermans literally! :prof:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Hermit » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:49 pm

pErvinalia wrote:Hermit meant 'eat' as in cannibalism. He's German, after all..
Thanks for telling Rum what I meant, but you got it wrong. :razzle:

As for Nigella being a tad sloppy, I trust Rum knows what he's talking about. And that he doesn't do sloppy seconds. :roll:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Scot Dutchy » Tue Dec 19, 2017 6:54 pm

She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson. Nuff said.
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Hermit » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:32 am

Scot Dutchy wrote:She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson. Nuff said.
What? She is her own person, not her father cloned. Nuff said indeed. :roll:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:34 am

She's not Dutch. Nuff said..
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Hermit » Wed Dec 20, 2017 1:08 am

pErvinalia wrote:She's not Dutch. Nuff said..
:hehe:

Bit slow on the uptake, aren't I? :fp:
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Scot Dutchy » Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:03 am

Hermit wrote:
Scot Dutchy wrote:She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson. Nuff said.
What? She is her own person, not her father cloned. Nuff said indeed. :roll:
Why did he call her Nigella?
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Re: Great tits and bad food

Post by Hermit » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:35 pm

Scot Dutchy wrote:
Hermit wrote:
Scot Dutchy wrote:She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson. Nuff said.
What? She is her own person, not her father cloned. Nuff said indeed. :roll:
Why did he call her Nigella?
Obviously because he wanted her to be Minime.

Wishes are one thing. Wishes becoming true is quite another. Perhaps you could tell us how Nigel Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer, equals Nigella Lawson, phenomenally successful television personality. I mean, apart from both of them being not Dutch.
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