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Social Facilitation in Eastern and Asian Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina and Cuora mccordi)
Social Facilitation in Eastern and Asian Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina and Cuora mccordi)
Grace Weyman-Heller1, Sierra M.V. Simmons1, Joseph Mendelson III2,3, and Sarah F. Brosnan1
1 Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, 2 Zoo Atlanta, 3 Georgia Institute of Technology
Social facilitation, a social learning strategy, refers to an increase in the frequency of a behavior in the presence of conspecifics performing the same behavior simultaneously. Understanding the extent of social facilitation across a diversity of taxa can provide insights into the evolution of social learning mechanisms and their adaptive significance across species. While well-documented in mammals and birds, its generality across other taxa remains understudied. To address this gap, we investigated whether social facilitation influenced feeding behaviors in 10 eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) and 9 Asian box turtles (Cuora mccordi), all housed at Zoo Atlanta. Using a modified methodology of Visalberghi and Fragaszy (1999), we assessed whether turtles consumed novel (color-dyed) food faster when observing conspecifics eating familiar (the same noncolor-dyed) food or when in the presence of non-feeding individuals. We hypothesized that the turtles would more readily inspect and consume food when visible conspecifics were eating, indicating social facilitation. However, linear mixed models revealed no significant effect of condition on feeding behavior in either species. Friedman paired ANOVAs indicated that session number significantly influenced several aspects of feeding behavior, including latency to inspect and eat, duration of food inspection and consumption, and the latency between inspection and eating (eastern box turtles: X² range = 54.43–82.51, df = 2, p < 0.001; Asian box turtles: X² range = 20.61–72.78, df = 2, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that turtles’ feeding behavior was not driven by social facilitation within this experimental context. However, limitations such as degree of food novelty or potential social dynamics, like competition, may have influenced the results. These factors should be addressed in future studies to further determine whether these species possess the evolutionary precursors to more complex forms of social learning like those observed in other vertebrate groups.
Social facilitation, a social learning strategy, refers to an increase in the frequency of a behavior in the presence of conspecifics performing the same behavior simultaneously. Understanding the extent of social facilitation across a diversity of taxa can provide insights into the evolution of social learning mechanisms and their adaptive significance across species. While well-documented in mammals and birds, its generality across other taxa remains understudied. To address this gap, we investigated whether social facilitation influenced feeding behaviors in 10 eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) and 9 Asian box turtles (Cuora mccordi), all housed at Zoo Atlanta. Using a modified methodology of Visalberghi and Fragaszy (1999), we assessed whether turtles consumed novel (color-dyed) food faster when observing conspecifics eating familiar (the same noncolor-dyed) food or when in the presence of non-feeding individuals. We hypothesized that the turtles would more readily inspect and consume food when visible conspecifics were eating, indicating social facilitation. However, linear mixed models revealed no significant effect of condition on feeding behavior in either species. Friedman paired ANOVAs indicated that session number significantly influenced several aspects of feeding behavior, including latency to inspect and eat, duration of food inspection and consumption, and the latency between inspection and eating (eastern box turtles: X² range = 54.43–82.51, df = 2, p < 0.001; Asian box turtles: X² range = 20.61–72.78, df = 2, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that turtles’ feeding behavior was not driven by social facilitation within this experimental context. However, limitations such as degree of food novelty or potential social dynamics, like competition, may have influenced the results. These factors should be addressed in future studies to further determine whether these species possess the evolutionary precursors to more complex forms of social learning like those observed in other vertebrate groups.
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