Cultural Diffusion of a Novel Food‐finding Behaviour in Urban Pigeons: an Experimental Field Test

Abstract

Abstract The cultural diffusion of a novel food‐finding behaviour, piercing the paper cover of a box containing seed, was experimentally provoked in two flocks of pigeons (Columba livia): a closed aviary flock and an open urban flock. In the urban flock, piercing behaviour spread to 24 previously naive individuals. The rate of cultural diffusion was more rapid in the urban flock than in the aviary. In both situations, many individuals simply fed from the discoveries of birds that pierced, but this effect slowed diffusion less in the open urban flock because experienced piercers left the flock and naive birds entered it. Individual trial‐and‐error learning and natural shaping can be ruled out as mechanisms of diffusion in the present case.

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