A Brief Report: Capture Order is Repeatable in Chickadees

Abstract

Black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) have been used as a model to examine cognitive functions including perception, episodic-like memory, and spatial learning and orientation. Recently, these species have been used in two studies to examine the relationship between learning and novel environment exploration and novel environment exploration and dominance. In the current study we explored whether these two species show consistency in behavior over time. In same species/same sex groups, male and female black-capped and mountain chickadees were released into a room and then captured by an experimenter with the procedure repeated one week later. Males, but not females in both species show consistency in capture order over both sessions. We discuss implications of this finding in the context of possible sampling biases.