Sociality and Caching

A Clark’s nutcracker caching a seed. Credit: Hillary Hobson.

Pinyon jays and Clark’s nutcrackers share habitat in the southwestern U.S., and both rely heavily on thousands of cached pine seeds over the winter. But the two species differ when it comes to their social structures: Pinyon jays are highly social, while Clark’s nutcrackers are more solitary. Researchers investigated how this difference in sociality influences their caching behavior when being observed by a bird of their own kind or a different species.

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: Hiding Seeds? It Depends Who’s Watching.