Inhibitory control, personality, and manipulated ecological conditions influence foraging plasticity in the great tit

Abstract

O_LIOrganisms are consistently under selection to respond effectively to a diversity of, sometimes rapid, changes in their environment. Behavioural plasticity can allow individuals to do so instantaneously, but why individuals vary in this respect is poorly understood. Although personality and cognitive traits are often hypothesised to influence plasticity, the effects reported are highly inconsistent, which we hypothesise is because ecological context is usually not considered. C_LIO_LIHere we explore the roles of individual cognitive and personality variation - assayed using standard tasks for inhibitory control, a measure of self-control, and reactive-proactive personality axis (RPPA), respectively - in driving foraging plasticity, and asked how these effects varied across two experimentally manipulated ecological contexts: food value and predation risk. C_LIO_LIAfter great tits (Parus major) had initially been trained to retrieve high value food hidden in sand, they were then simultaneously offered the hidden food and an alternative food choice on the surface, that was either high or low value. Their choices were further examined under high and low perceived predation risk treatments. Individuals choices were classified in terms of whether they continued to forage on the hidden but familiar food source, or instead switched to the new visible food source. We defined the latter option as the plastic response. C_LIO_LIOur assays captured consistent differences among individuals in foraging behaviour. Both inhibitory control and exploration influenced whether birds switched from the familiar but hidden food source to the new alternative visible food on the surface. These effects depended on the relative value of the food items available and on the perceived level of predation risk, but also on the time scale over which the response was measured. C_LIO_LIOur results demonstrate how an executive cognitive function and one specific personality axis can simultaneously influence plasticity in a key functional behaviour. That their effects on foraging were primarily observed as interactions with food value or predation risk treatments also suggest that the population level consequences of behavioural mechanisms, such as these, may only be revealed across key ecological conditions or gradients. C_LI