Jessica Lindop

My MBiol project will focus on how social rank influences the transmission of social learning behaviours in homing pigeons (Columba livia). I will monitor gaze following behaviours that can provide insights into social learning, including the direction of a bird’s attention towards other individuals. The way in which social rank influences these behaviours has not yet been extensively studied in birds.

Gaze following can now be measured much more accurately, due to novel technology in the form of small, head-mounted biologging cameras. I will use these to monitor gaze following during a social learning task, to test if pigeons preferentially look towards certain individuals based on social rank. This will provide a more detailed understanding of how both gaze following behaviours and social learning are influenced by social rank in pigeons.

behaviour ecology ornithology