Prey quantity discrimination and social experience affect foraging decisions of rock lizards

Animals often face situations that require quantity discrimination for decision-making. Differentiating between more and lessamounts might be adaptative in different contexts such as in social relationships, navigation, or foraging. However, feeding closeto conspecifics might change foraging behavior decisions due to changes in predation risk perception and competition forresources. Here, we tested the quantity judgment abilities of foraging rock lizards (Iberolacerta cyreni) in a spontaneous choicetest between 5 and 10 cricket prey. Lizards tested had been previously housed alone or in a group to examine how social experience affected foraging decisions. Our results showed that“grouped”lizards had greater foraging activity than “solitary” lizards. Furthermore, all lizards demonstrated some ability to discriminate between the two amounts of prey. These results revealthe capability of quantity judgments in rock lizards and also that foraging decisions may be modulated by the previous social experience.This work was supported by the MINECO CGL2014-53523-P project.Peer reviewe