This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Angela Medina-GarcÃa, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Rebecca Safran at the University of Colorado-Boulder. This project seeks to understand how social breeding impacts the evolution of wild animals' ability to acquire and use social information. The fellow will fill this gap in scientific knowledge by evaluating how birds (barn swallows) of different colony sizes acquire and use social information, and how these abilities help them reproduce. Animals need to constantly obtain and process environmental information to survive and reproduce. Many animals live in dense colonies, which requires them to pay attention to the actions of others and use this environmental information (i.e. social information) to increase their ability to successfully raise their young. The fellow is also providing invaluable research training to undergraduate students from underrepresented minorities. In addition, elementary and high school students from underrepresented groups are being engaged by observing swallow colonies while learning basic bird biology. The fellow is also developing exhibits at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, a bilingual website on avian cognition ('aviancognition'), and an interactive online program for reporting barn swallow colonies ('Swallow Tracker'), which involve students of all levels and help increase appreciation for birds and biological field research among the general public.
Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) breed either in solitary pairs or in colonies with multiple breeding pairs. Therefore, this species is an ideal system to make ecologically and phylogenetically controlled comparisons of cognitive traits among individuals of the same population with a varying degree of sociality. The impacts of social breeding on the evolution of cognitive traits will be tested along a sociality continuum, with the following objectives: 1) Measure individual variation in cognitive traits and reproductive success; 2) Test natal and environmental influences on cognitive traits. Naturally occurring anti-predator behaviors will be used to measure cognitive traits that reveal selective acquisition of social information. The adaptive value of cognitive traits will be evaluated by measuring reproductive success. The influences of natal and social environments on cognitive traits will be examined by conducting a partial cross-fostering experiment between social breeding groups of different sizes. Quantitative genetic models will be employed to estimate variance components due to both natal and rearing environments.
