| Title: | Great tits (Parus major) flexibly learn that herbivore-induced plant volatiles indicate prey location: An experimental evidence with two tree species |
| Author(s): | Sam K; Kovarova E; Freiberga I; Uthe H; Weinhold A; Jorge LR; Sreekar R; |
| Address: | Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic. Faculty of Sciences University of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic. Molecular Interaction Ecology Institute of Biodiversity Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena Germany. Molecular Interaction Ecology German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig Leipzig Germany. School of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-7758 (Print) 2045-7758 (Electronic) 2045-7758 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "When searching for food, great tits (Parus major) can use herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) as an indicator of arthropod presence. Their ability to detect HIPVs was shown to be learned, and not innate, yet the flexibility and generalization of learning remain unclear.We studied if, and if so how, naive and trained great tits (Parus major) discriminate between herbivore-induced and noninduced saplings of Scotch elm (Ulmus glabra) and cattley guava (Psidium cattleyanum). We chemically analyzed the used plants and showed that their HIPVs differed significantly and overlapped only in a few compounds.Birds trained to discriminate between herbivore-induced and noninduced saplings preferred the herbivore-induced saplings of the plant species they were trained to. Naive birds did not show any preferences. Our results indicate that the attraction of great tits to herbivore-induced plants is not innate, rather it is a skill that can be acquired through learning, one tree species at a time.We demonstrate that the ability to learn to associate HIPVs with food reward is flexible, expressed to both tested plant species, even if the plant species has not coevolved with the bird species (i.e., guava). Our results imply that the birds are not capable of generalizing HIPVs among tree species but suggest that they either learn to detect individual compounds or associate whole bouquets with food rewards" |
| Keywords: | Avian olfaction HIPVs Parus major foraging herbivore-induced plant volatiles induced indirect plant defense insect herbivores insectivorous birds multitrophic interactions; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINESam, Katerina Kovarova, Eliska Freiberga, Inga Uthe, Henriette Weinhold, Alexander Jorge, Leonardo R Sreekar, Rachakonda eng England 2021/08/26 Ecol Evol. 2021 Jul 21; 11(16):10917-10925. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7869. eCollection 2021 Aug" |
