My MBiol project is investigating whether inter-individual differences in working memory predict flight leadership position in bird flocks, specifically in homing pigeons (Columba livia). Using a radial arm maze to assess the working memory of individuals in a flock, and collecting individual personality, ground dominance and GPS flight tracking data, I aim to disentangle some of the factors underpinning pigeons’ context-dependent dominance and leadership hierarchies, and for the first time directly explore the role of spatial working memory.
I hope this project will contribute to our understanding of the emergence and role of keystone decision-making individuals in cluster flocks and moving collectives more broadly, which could eventually inform conservation approaches, especially in the context of translocation and reintroduction. I’m also interested in what the nature of links between spatial memory and flock roles could mean in terms of the evolution of different types of cognition and the energetic trade-offs involved.
behaviour, ecology, ornithology
