Dominant male pheasants learn
faster than their downtrodden rivals, new research shows.
A group of 18 male pheasants -
vying for the attention of 16 females - were repeatedly placed in front of two
tunnels, and had to remember which was clear and which was blocked.
The researchers, from the
University of Exeter, found dominant males were better at remembering which
tunnel was clear - with top third of males 40% more successful at the task than
the least dominant third.
It is unknown whether dominance
makes males better learners, males become dominant because they are better at
learning, or both are due to other characteristics.
"The higher a male
pheasant's social rank, the better their performance on this task," said
Ellis Langley, of Exeter's Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour. "They
each tried the task 14 times, and by the end of the experiment the more
dominant males were
more accurate overall. "We can't be certain why this happens. One
possibility is that the dominant males are
higher quality individuals - and these qualities include both cognitive
function and social dominance.
"It's also possible that
pheasants differ in stress levels according to their social rank, so subordinate malesmay be
more stressed and have less energy to devote to learning."Future research
will explore these possibilities."
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