Data for Long-term memory of experienced jays facilitates problem-solving by naïve group members in the wild

Long-term memory affects animal fitness, especially in social species. In these species, the memory of group members facilitates the acquisition of novel foraging skills through social learning when naïve individuals observe and imitate the successful foraging behavior. Long-term memory and social learning also provide the framework for cultural behavior, a trait found in humans but very few other animal species. In birds, little is known about the duration of long-term memories for complex foraging skills, or the impact of long-term memory on group members. We tested whether wild jays remembered a complex foraging task more than 3 years after their initial experience and quantified the effect of this memory on naïve jay behavior. Experienced jays remembered how to solve the task and their behavior had significant positive effects on interactions by naïve group members at the task. This suggests that natural selection may favor long-term memory of solutions to foraging problems to facilitate the persistence of foraging skills that are specifically useful in the local environment in social birds with long lifespans and overlapping generations.长期记忆会影响动物的适合度（fitness），尤其在社会性物种中。在这类物种中，当无经验个体观察并模仿成功的觅食行为时，群体成员的记忆可通过社会学习促进新型觅食技能的习得。长期记忆与社会学习还为文化行为搭建了框架——这类性状仅在人类及极少数其他动物物种中被发现。在鸟类中，学界对复杂觅食技能的长期记忆时长，以及长期记忆对群体成员的影响仍知之甚少。本研究探究了野生松鸦在初次接触复杂觅食任务三年多后是否仍记得该任务，并量化了这种记忆对无经验松鸦行为的影响。有经验的松鸦能够记住该任务的解法，且它们的行为对参与该任务的无经验群体成员的互动产生了显著的正向影响。这表明，自然选择可能会青睐针对觅食问题解法的长期记忆，以助力那些仅在当地环境中具有实用价值的觅食技能在寿命较长、世代重叠的社会性鸟类中得以持续留存。