TY - JOUR T1 - Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.04.08.438960 SP - 2021.04.08.438960 AU - Gabriele Valentini AU - Theodore P. Pavlic AU - Sara Imari Walker AU - Stephen C. Pratt AU - Dora Biro AU - Takao Sasaki Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/09/2021.04.08.438960.abstract N2 - Group-living animals that rely on stable foraging or migratory routes can develop behavioural traditions to pass route information down to inexperienced individuals. Striking a balance between exploitation of social information and exploration for better alternatives is essential to prevent the spread of maladaptive traditions. We investigated this balance during cumulative route development in the homing pigeon Columba livia. We quantified causal interactions within pairs of birds in a transmission-chain experiment and determined how birds with different levels of experience contributed to the exploration– exploitation trade-off. Newly introduced naïve individuals were initially more likely to initiate exploration than experienced birds, but the pair soon settled into a pattern of alternating leadership with both birds contributing equally. Experimental pairs showed an oscillating pattern of exploration over generations that might facilitate the discovery of more efficient routes. Our results introduce a new perspective on the roles of leadership and information pooling in the context of collective learning.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -