Innovative problem solving by wild falcons

How do big brains evolve?

In both birds and mammals, variation in brain size predominantly reflects variation in mass or volume of the pallium (neocortex) and, to a lesser extent, of the cerebellum, suggesting convergent coevolution of brains and cognition. When brain measures are based on neuron counts, however, a surprisingly different picture emerges: The number of neurons in the cerebellum surpasses those in the pallium of all mammals (including humans and other primates) and in many but not all birds studied to date. In particular, parrots and corvids, clades known for cognitive abilities that match those of primates, have brains that contain more pallial than cerebellar neurons. Birds and mammals may thus have followed different evolutionary routes of pallial-cerebellar coordination behind enhanced cognitive complexity.

Palaeognath birds innovate to solve a novel foraging problem

The ability to innovate implies flexible cognition, and is used as a broad metric of intelligence. Innovation in birds has been intensively studied in the larger and more taxonomically diverse Neognathae clade (particularly crows and parrots) and overlooked in the smaller and more ancestral Palaeognathae clade. The current study provides the first known evidence of technical innovation in palaeognath birds. We tested the ability of nine individuals of three species to move a hole towards a chamber to access a food reward. This problem was different to traditional innovation puzzle-boxes where an obstacle is moved away from a food chamber. Three emus and one rhea produced a wheel-turning innovation, moving the hole in the most efficient direction (closer to the nearest food item) in 90% of cases. One rhea dismantled the task twice by removing the central bolt, which we suggest is a second type of innovation, and it did not persist once they innovated the wheel turning solution. Ostriches did not innovate. We classify innovation in palaeognaths as low level/simplistic, relying on general exploration and asocial trial and error learning. Our research suggests that technical innovation may have evolved far earlier in birds than previously thought, and palaeognath birds are a compelling taxonomic group for further cognitive research.

Long-term memory in wild falcons

Long-term memory - information retention over long timescales - can allow animals to retain foraging skills and efficiently respond to seasonally available resources and changing environments1. Most long-term memory research is with captive species, focusing on spatial, individual or object recognition, with less known about wild species and the retention of motor task abilities, as in the case of complex foraging skills2,3. We have examined whether wild striated caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis), recently shown to rapidly and flexibly innovate with an eight-task puzzle box4, retain task memories one year later. We found that, despite no reinforcement, caracaras repeated motor techniques that led to their most recent success on tasks the year prior, solving nearly twice as fast as a naïve control group and four times faster than when naïve. Our results suggest long-term memory may be important for non-migratory opportunistic generalists, particularly in remote island environments with seasonally available resources, and further highlight how striated caracaras are promising candidates for avian cognitive studies.

Animal behaviour: Darwin's mischievous hat stealers are innovative problem solvers

A new study shows a falcon species, the striated caracara, displays similar levels of behavioural innovation to tool-using parrots when solving a battery test in the wild.