PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gabrielle Davidson
AU  - Niamh Wiley
AU  - Amy C. Cooke
AU  - Crystal N. Johnson
AU  - Fiona Fouhy
AU  - Michael S. Reichert
AU  - Ivan de la Hera
AU  - Jodie M.S. Crane
AU  - Ipek G. Kulahci
AU  - R. Paul Ross
AU  - Catherine Stanton
AU  - John L. Quinn
TI  - Diet-induced changes to host gut microbiota are linked to foraging innovation in a wild bird
AID  - 10.1101/827741
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 827741
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/01/827741.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/01/827741.full
AB  - Studies in lab rodents indicate diet alters host gut microbiome and that the gut microbiome influences behaviour. However, the ecological relevance across species and in wild animals is unclear. First we showed that problem solving performance in wild-caught great tits (Parus major) was weakly associated with natural variation in the gut microbiome. Then we experimentally manipulated the gut microbiome by feeding birds one of two different diets – an all insect diet or an all seed/nut diet. We presented these individuals with the problem solving task after the dietary manipulation to test whether the gut microbiome alterations influenced foraging innovativeness. Microbial communities changed substantially when given the insect, but not the seed diet. Individuals were less likely to problem-solve after being given the insect diet, and performance was positively associated with microbiome diversity. This is the first demonstration of an association between innovative problem solving and the gut microbiome in a wild animal.