Sociality and social learning in two species of corvids: The pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)

The hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for socia l living predicts that social species should learn better socially than the y do individually, but that nonsocial species should not exhibit a similar enhancement of performance under social learning conditions. The authors co mpared individual and social learning abilities in 2 corvid species: the hi ghly social pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) and the less social Clar k's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). The birds were tested on 2 different tasks under individual and social learning conditions. Half learned a moto r task individually and a discrimination task socially; the other half lear ned the motor task socially and the discrimination task individually. Pinyo n jays learned faster socially than they did individually, but nutcrackers performed equally well under both learning conditions. Results support the hypothesis that social learning is an adaptive specialization for social li ving in pinyon jays.