根据一项研究，大群家麻雀（Passer domesticus）与较小的群体相比表现出了更有效的解决问题的技能。此前的研究表明，群体生活为动物带来了各种优势，诸如躲避捕食者和在获取食物上的成功。
András Liker 和Veronika Bókony如今报告说，较大的麻雀群体比较小的群体有能力更频繁、更快地获取食物。这组作者把捕获的野生麻雀分成了大群（6只）或小群（2只），把熟悉的食物放在熟悉的容器中给它们，但是打开容器的方法和它们曾经看到的不同，然后观察它们。6只一群的麻雀打开容器的次数是2只一群的4倍，而且打开速度是后者的11倍。这项研究发现大群获取食物的速度是小群的7倍，这组科学家把它归结为在打开容器方面的效率增加而不是尝试的次数更多。无论群体的大小，城市麻雀比农村麻雀打开容器的速度更快。这组作者提出了一个假说，即较大群的鸟比较小群的鸟更多样化，因此更可能具有迅速解决一项任务的有技能的个体。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
PNAS April 27, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0900042106
Larger groups are more successful in innovative problem solving in house sparrows
András Liker,1 and Veronika Bókony
1 Department of Limnology, University of Pannonia, H-8201, Veszprém, Hungary
Abstract
Group living offers well-known benefits to animals, such as better predator avoidance and increased foraging success. An important additional, but so far neglected, advantage is that groups may cope more effectively with unfamiliar situations through faster innovations of new solutions by some group members. We tested this hypothesis experimentally by presenting a new foraging task of opening a familiar feeder in an unfamiliar way to house sparrows in small and large groups (2 versus 6 birds). Group size had strong effects on problem solving: sparrows performed 4 times more and 11 times faster openings in large than in small groups, and all members of large groups profited by getting food sooner (7 times on average). Independently from group size, urban groups were more successful than rural groups. The disproportionately higher success in large groups was not a mere consequence of higher number of attempts, but was also related to a higher effectiveness of problem solving (3 times higher proportion of successful birds). The analyses of the birds' behavior suggest that the latter was not explained by either reduced investment in antipredator vigilance or reduced neophobia in large groups. Instead, larger groups may contain more diverse individuals with different skills and experiences, which may increase the chance of solving the task by some group members. Increased success in problem solving may promote group living in animals and may help them to adapt quickly to new situations in rapidly-changing environments.
