The corvid family of birds, which includes jays, ravens, crows and nutcrackers, has already been shown to have incredible memories. These experiments, however, reveal that birds can think and analyze situations involving other birds and act accordingly, as well as plan for the future and recall the past.
One of the most amazing results from the study is that birds can in fact think about the future. In one test, scrub-jays were presented with 2 cages. The first cage was one in which they were previously denied breakfast, and the second was one in which they were fed as normal. Given the opportunity to steal and cache food, the birds opted to hide the food in the cage that they had been hungry in, possibly in anticipation of not getting breakfast again.
Additionally, the scrub-jays, like squirrels, can track the passing of time to ensure that they return to a cache of food before it spoils.
Finally, it was the social thinking abilities that struck these scientists. If a scrub-jay knew they were being watched by another bird while caching, they would either wait until the other bird looked away to hide their stash, or hid the food but returned soon after to move it somewhere safer. Previously, having an episodic memory, or being able to recall a moment versus a skill or a fact, has been considered a human ability. These findings are challenging how scientists view the mental capacity of birds.
The last point that got me thinking about intelligence in other animals and species was when the article pointed out that birds and mammals split on the tree of life some 280 million years ago. The structure of their brains is also significantly different. However, the ability to think flexibly is shared so the scientists argue that such intelligence must have evolved separately but somehow converged to achieve the same goal of managing social interactions. Pretty crazy to think about, isn’t it?
Posted by Muriel Herd, Group A
The cognitive abilities of the scrub-jay are very impressive. Do you know anything about the age of the birds tested and whether or not these are innate behaviors or something learned over time? Also your last point about suggesting convergent evolution of cognition between humans and birds is interesting. Do you think humans underestimate the abilities of animals?
ReplyDeleteHimanshu Shah
That is really fascinating! I never knew a bird could have such advanced cognitive abilities! Do you know if any of the other members of the corvid family share any of these advanced abilities besides memory?
ReplyDeletePosted by: Sara Weaver
This is interesting because that sort of imaginative thinking and awareness is usually considered a uniquely human trait. We really aren't as special as we think we are. If cognition does not turn out to separate humanity from the rest of animalia as humans like to think it does, what effect (if any) do you think it might have on animal rights?
ReplyDelete-Alice Trei
Himanshu: When the scientist realized that the birds could remember if they were being watched by other birds and would wait to hide their food, they also hand-raised birds. The hand-raised birds were not given the chance to steal from other birds' caches. Interestingly, the hand-raised birds did not protect their caches from thieves. Without the chance to steal they didn't plan for it to happen to them. So, this behavior is more learned and based on the bird's own experience than strictly innate.
ReplyDeleteSara: At the end of the article I read, there were some further examples of how intelligent the corvid family is. They have been shown to recognize themselves in mirrors, use tools to solve problems, and there is even one story about a researcher who had to wear more and more elaborate disguises in order to get close to and catch ravens over the period of an experiment. I really encourage you to read the article for some more amazing examples.
Alice: So much is already known about thinking and awareness in animals, other than birds too, and I think that as people learn about these traits we think of animals in a different light. However, I feel as though a lot of people will always hold themselves way above all animals because we're humans, and they don't consider themselves animals. Its not necessarily true but I think a lot of people believe this and so animal rights might not change that much.
-Muriel Herd