https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:27211 Acridotheres tristis, has been linked to its ability to occupy opportunistically an ecological niche that most natives cannot, whereas the native noisy miner, Manorina melanocephala, owes its success to its ability to aggressively outcompete other avian species. Indian mynas were significantly more neophobic than noisy miners. Yet, when tested on a range of innovative foraging tasks, Indian mynas consistently outperformed noisy miners. The ability to use the beak in a greater range of ways, and more flexibly, was highly repeatable in Indian mynas, and underpinned their superior problem-solving performance. We discuss the results in the light of potential methodological influences, but also the idea that necessity may facilitate innovation not only in less competitive individuals, as is documented in the literature, but also in species with less competitive lifestyles.]]> Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:32:26 AEDT ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:27212 Acridotheres tristis, to innovate when alone, in pairs, or in groups of five birds. Although innovators remained consistent in their relative innovation performance ranking (high, medium, low), the presence of one or more conspecifics reduced the likelihood of innovating, and increased innovation latencies, significantly relative to when individuals were tested alone. A neophobia test in which latency to forage was compared in both the absence and the presence of a novel object, in each of two social contexts (solitary versus social), showed that the presence of conspecifics caused mynahs to forage significantly faster in a safe situation (object absent) relative to when alone, but to delay foraging in a risky situation (object present). Together, these findings suggest that sociality can have contrasting effects on foraging in safe and risky situations, and, in some species at least, effects of sociality on innovative foraging may hence be more akin to those observed in the presence of risk. Negotiation over engaging with risks inherent to innovative foraging offered the most likely explanation for socially inhibited innovation behaviour, and may act to constrain the diffusion of innovations under some conditions.]]> Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:32:26 AEDT ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:29189 Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:31:38 AEDT ]]>