The influence of free interactions and partner familiarity on social transmission in the young canary

We studied social transmission of the handling of hemp seed between experienced adult and naïve juvenile canaries, Serinus canaria. Adult demonstrators were either familiar or unfamiliar to the juveniles and demonstration took place either during free interactions between birds or under conditions where the juvenile could only observe the adult. Some effects of social transmission were observed under all these conditions. When juveniles were isolated after exposure to the adult demonstrator, they picked up and husked seeds earlier than control juveniles that had not seen a demonstrator. Although the demonstrating activity of adults was weaker during free interactions with an unfamiliar juvenile than with a familiar one, there was no effect of familiarity or of opportunity for interaction on the latency of juveniles to pick up the first seed when later isolated. However, the handling time required to husk the first seed was lower when the juvenile had previously interacted freely with a familiar adult than in the other three conditions. Whereas observation alone promoted picking up of seed by familiarizing juveniles with the new food, they learned to husk and consume the seed more quickly after their activity had been directed towards it during free interactions with a familiar adult. These results indicate that the specific dynamics of interaction between adult and juvenile have a strong influence on the social transmission of feeding behaviour.