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| Lessons in love: does staying with the same partner facilitate learning about nest building? |
| Benjamin A. Whittaker, Cailyn Poole, Jessica Hewitt, Andr�s Camacho-Alp�zar, Lauren M. Guillette. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada |
As socially-monogamous pairs live in close proximity for long periods of time, we predict this mating system facilitates learning across reproductive events via accumulating shared experience with the same partner. Zebra finches are socially-monogamous birds that build nests to reproduce. Males build nests with individual style (shape, size) that becomes less varied with experience. Twenty male finches each built five nests using string in a laboratory. Half built all their nests with the same female (Same-Partner Group: SPG), the other half built each nest with a different female (Different-Partner Group: DGP). SPG nests had repeatable style, and subsequent nests were built faster using fewer materials. Staying with the same female enabled the male to learn how to solve an important task (nest building) with a consistent response (nest style) more efficiently. DPG nests did not show repeatable style, and subsequent nests were not built faster nor used fewer materials. This implies males did not generalize learning across nests built with different females. We propose “partner-facilitated learning” as a hypothetical advantage of social-monogamy that mutually benefits both partners. |