An interindividual analysis of the relation between behavioral innovation and behavioral flexibility in urbans Caracara Chimangos, Milvago chimango

Behavioral innovation is considered an important source of phenotypic plasticity. One type of plasticity, flexibility, provides individuals the ability to adjust their phenotype throughout life in response to changing environmental cues. Despite evidence that at the taxon level the occurrence of behavioral innovation is considered indicative of behavioral flexibility, there are only a few studies examining the relationship between these two traits at individual level. Here, the prediction that interindividual differences in behavioral innovation is a measure of behavioral flexibility variation was tested in wild-caught Caracara Chimangos, Milvago chimango, from urbanized environments. We analyzed the correlation between the reversal learning performance (measure of behavioral flexibility) and several cognitive and non-cognitive components of novel problem-solving ability (estimate of innovation propensity). The results showed a positive relationship between acquisition and novel problem-solving speed. Reversal learning speed, however, did not correlate with solving latency, but show a significate correlation with the number of doors opened (positive), persistence (negative) and number of opening technique changes (positive). These results show that the tendency to solve a novel problem is positively related with associative learning ability. However, reverting a previously acquired association would not be related to the speed of resolution per se, but to the degree to which such a novel problem is solved, and with the changes in the techniques used to do so.