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Author Emery, N.J.; Dally, J.M.; Clayton, N.S.
Title Western scrub-jays ( Aphelocoma californica) use cognitive strategies to protect their caches from thieving conspecifics Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 7 Issue (up) 1 Pages 37-43
Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Female; *Food; Male; *Memory
Abstract Food caching birds hide food and recover the caches when supplies are less abundant. There is, however, a risk to this strategy because the caches are susceptible to pilfering by others. Corvids use a number of different strategies to reduce possible cache theft. Scrub-jays with previous experience of pilfering other's caches cached worms in two visuospatially distinct caching trays either in private or in the presence of a conspecific. When these storers had cached in private, they subsequently observed both trays out of reach of a conspecific. When these storers had cached in the presence of a conspecific, they subsequently watched the observer pilfering from one of the trays while the other tray was placed in full view, but out of reach. The storers were then allowed to recover the remaining caches 3 h later. Jays cached more worms when they were observed during caching. At the time of recovery, they re-cached more than if they had cached in private, selectively re-caching outside of the trays in sites unbeknown to potential thieves. In addition, after a single pilfering trial, the jays switched their recovery strategy from predominantly checking their caches (i.e. returning to a cache site to see whether the food remained there) to predominantly eating them. Re-caching remained constant across the three trials. These results suggest that scrub-jays use flexible, cognitive caching and recovery strategies to aid in reducing potential future pilfering of caches by conspecifics.
Address Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, High Street, CB3 8AA Madingley, Cambs, UK. nje23@cam.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12827547 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2566
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Author Schmidt, R.; Amrhein, V.; Kunc, H.P.; Naguib, M.
Title The day after: effects of vocal interactions on territory defence in nightingales Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication The Journal of Animal Ecology Abbreviated Journal T. J. Anim. Ecol.
Volume 76 Issue (up) 1 Pages 168-173
Keywords Aggression; Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; *Territoriality; Time Factors; Vocalization, Animal/*physiology
Abstract 1. Models on territory acquisition and tenure predict that territorial animals benefit by adjusting territorial defence behaviour to previous challenges they had experienced within the socially complex environment of communication networks. 2. Here, we addressed such issues of social cognition by investigating persisting effects of vocal contests on territory defence behaviour in nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos (Brehm). 3. Using interactive playback during nocturnal song of subjects, a rival was simulated to countersing either aggressively (by song overlapping) or moderately (by song alternating) from outside the subjects' territory. Thereby, the time-specific singing strategy provided an experimentally controlled source of information on the motivation of an unfamiliar rival. 4. Expecting that nightingales integrate information with time, the same rival was simulated to return as a moderately singing intruder on the following morning. 5. The results show that the vigour with which male nightingales responded to the simulated intrusion of an opponent during the day depended on the nature of the nocturnal vocal interaction experienced several hours before. 6. Males that had received the song overlapping playback the preceding night approached the simulated intruder more quickly and closer and sang more songs near the loudspeaker than did males that had received a song alternating playback. 7. This adjustment of territory defence strategies depending on information from prior signalling experience suggests that integrating information with time plays an important part in territory defence by affecting a male's decision making in a communication network.
Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld University, PO Box 100 131, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany. rouven.schmidt@uni-bielefeld.de
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0021-8790 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:17184365 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2749
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Author Mettke-Hofmann, C.; Gwinner, E.
Title Long-term memory for a life on the move Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
Volume 100 Issue (up) 10 Pages 5863-5866
Keywords Animals; Germany; Israel; Memory/*physiology; Models, Biological; Periodicity; Songbirds/*physiology
Abstract Evidence is accumulating that cognitive abilities are shaped by the specific ecological conditions to which animals are exposed. Long-distance migratory birds may provide a striking example of this. Field observations have shown that, at least in some species, a substantial proportion of individuals return to the same breeding, wintering, and stopover sites in successive years. This observation suggests that migrants have evolved special cognitive abilities that enable them to accomplish these feats. Here we show that memory of a particular feeding site persisted for at least 12 months in a long-distance migrant, whereas a closely related nonmigrant could remember such a site for only 2 weeks. Thus, it seems that the migratory lifestyle has influenced the learning and memorizing capacities of migratory birds. These results build a bridge between field observations suggesting special memorization feats of migratory birds and previous neuroanatomical results from the same two species indicating an increase in relative hippocampal size from the first to the second year of life in the migrant but not in the nonmigrant.
Address Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology, Department of Biological Rhythms and Behaviour, Von-der-Tann-Strasse 7, 82346 Andechs, Germany. mettke-hofmann@erl.ornithol.mpg.de
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12719527 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 511
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Author Peake, T.M.; Terry, A.M.; McGregor, P.K.; Dabelsteen, T.
Title Male great tits eavesdrop on simulated male-to-male vocal interactions Type Journal Article
Year 2001 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 268 Issue (up) 1472 Pages 1183-1187
Keywords Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Animal communication generally occurs in the environment of a network of several potential signallers and receivers. Within a network environment, it is possible to gain relative information about conspecifics by eavesdropping on signalling interactions. We presented male great tits with the opportunity to gain such information by simulating singing interactions using two loudspeakers. Interactions were presented so that relevant information was not available in the absolute singing behaviour of either individual, only in the relative timing of their songs in the interaction as a whole. We then assayed the information extracted by focal males by subsequently introducing one of the 'interactants' (i.e. loudspeakers) into the territory of the focal male. Focal males responded with a reduced song output to males that had just 'lost' an interaction. Focal males did not respond significantly differently to 'winners' as compared with intruders recently involved in an interaction that contained no consistent information. Focal males also responded by switching song types more often when encountering males that had recently been involved in a low-intensity interaction. These results provide the clearest evidence yet that male songbirds extract information from signal interactions between conspecifics in the field.
Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Tagensvej 16, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. tmpeake@zi.ku.dk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11375107 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 712
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Author Peake, T.M.; Terry, A.M.R.; McGregor, P.K.; Dabelsteen, T.
Title Do great tits assess rivals by combining direct experience with information gathered by eavesdropping? Type Journal Article
Year 2002 Publication Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci
Volume 269 Issue (up) 1503 Pages 1925-1929
Keywords Aggression; *Animal Communication; Animals; Male; Songbirds/*physiology; Territoriality; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Animals frequently use signals that travel further than the spacing between individuals. For every intended recipient of a given signal there are likely to be many other individuals that receive information. Eavesdropping on signalling interactions between other individuals provides a relatively cost-free method of assessing future opponents or mates. Male great tits (Parus major) extract relative information from such interactions between individuals unknown to them. Here, we show that male great tits can take information gathering a stage further and obtain more information about a previously unencountered intruder, by the hitherto unknown capability of combining information gathered by eavesdropping with that derived from their own direct interaction with an individual. Prior experience with an intruder (A) was achieved by subjecting a focal male to different levels of intrusion simulated using interactive playback. This intruder (A) then took part in a simulated interaction with an unknown male (B) outside the territorial boundary of the focal males. In response to subsequent intrusion by the second male (B), focal males showed low song output in response to males that had lost to a male that the subject was able to beat. Males of known high quality, or those about which information was ambiguous, elicited a high level of song output by focal males. We discuss the implications of this finding for the evolution of communication and social behaviour.
Address Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University, Tagensvej 16, DK 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. tmpeake@zi.ku.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12350255 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 501
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Author Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Memory and hippocampal specialization in food-storing birds: challenges for research on comparative cognition Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol
Volume 62 Issue (up) 2 Pages 108-116
Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Color Perception/physiology; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Hippocampus/*physiology; Memory/*physiology; Species Specificity
Abstract The three-way association among food-storing behavior, spatial memory, and hippocampal enlargement in some species of birds is widely cited as an example of a new 'cognitive ecology' or 'neuroecology.' Whether this relationship is as strong as it first appears and whether it might be evidence for an adaptive specialization of memory and hippocampus in food-storers have recently been the subject of some controversy [Bolhuis and Macphail, 2001; Macphail and Bolhuis, 2001]. These critiques are based on misconceptions about the nature of adaptive specializations in cognition, misconceptions about the uniformity of results to be expected from applying the comparative method to data from a wide range of species, and a narrow view of what kinds of cognitive adaptations are theoretically interesting. New analyses of why food-storers (black-capped chickadees, Poecile Atricapilla) respond preferentially to spatial over color cues when both are relevant in a memory task show that this reflects a relative superiority of spatial memory as compared to memory for color rather than exceptional spatial attention or spatial discrimination ability. New studies of chickadees from more or less harsh winter climates also support the adaptive specialization hypothesis and suggest that within-species comparisons may be especially valuable for unraveling details of the relationships among ecology, memory, and brain in food-storing species.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., M5S 3G3, Canada. shettle@psych.utoronto.ca
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12937349 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 367
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Author Zucca, P.; Milos, N.; Vallortigara, G.
Title Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 10 Issue (up) 2 Pages 243-258
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Birds/*physiology; *Cognition; *Cues
Abstract Object permanence in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) was investigated using a complete version of the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Nine hand-raised jays were studied, divided into two groups according to their different developmental stages (experiment 1, older jays: 2-3 months old, n = 4; experiment 2, younger jays: 15 days old, n = 5). In the first experiment, we investigated whether older jays could achieve piagetian stage 6 of object permanence. Tasks were administered in a fixed sequence (1-15) according to the protocols used in other avian species. The aim of the second experiment was to check whether testing very young jays before their development of “neophobia” could influence the achievement times of piagetian stages. Furthermore, in this experiment tasks were administered randomly to investigate whether the jays' achievement of stage 6 follows a fixed sequence related to the development of specific cognitive abilities. All jays tested in experiments 1 and 2 fully achieved piagetian stage 6 and no “A not B” errors were observed. Performance on visible displacement tasks was better than performance on invisible ones. The results of experiment 2 show that “neophobia” affected the response of jays in terms of achievement times; the older jays in experiment 1 took longer to pass all the tasks when compared with the younger, less neophobic, jays in experiment 2. With regard to the achieving order, jays followed a fixed sequence of acquisition in experiment 2, even if tasks were administered randomly, with the exception of one subject. The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences.
Address Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy. zucca@units.it
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:17242935 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2423
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Reboreda, J.C.; Clayton, N.S.; Kacelnik, A.
Title Species and sex differences in hippocampus size in parasitic and non-parasitic cowbirds Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Neuroreport Abbreviated Journal Neuroreport
Volume 7 Issue (up) 2 Pages 505-508
Keywords Animals; Birds/*physiology; Female; Hippocampus/*anatomy & histology; Male; Nesting Behavior/*physiology; Sex Characteristics; Species Specificity; Telencephalon/anatomy & histology
Abstract To test the hypothesis that selection for spatial abilities which require birds to locate and to return accurately to host nests has produced an enlarged hippocampus in brood parasites, three species of cowbird were compared. In shiny cowbirds, females search for host nests without the assistance of the male; in screaming cowbirds, males and females inspect hosts' nests together; in bay-winged cowbirds, neither sex searches because this species is not a brood parasite. As predicted, the two parasitic species had a relatively larger hippocampus than the non-parasitic species. There were no sex differences in relative hippocampus size in screaming or bay-winged cowbirds, but female shiny cowbirds had a larger hippocampus than the male.
Address Instituto de Biologia y Medicina Experimental-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0959-4965 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:8730816 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4798
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Author Hodgson, Z.G.; Healy, S.D.
Title Preference for spatial cues in a non-storing songbird species Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 8 Issue (up) 3 Pages 211-214
Keywords Animals; Association Learning/*physiology; *Cues; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Female; Male; Memory/*physiology; Sex Factors; Songbirds/*physiology; Space Perception/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology
Abstract Male mammals typically outperform their conspecific females on spatial tasks. A sex difference in cues used to solve the task could underlie this performance difference as spatial ability is reliant on appropriate cue use. Although comparative studies of memory in food-storing and non-storing birds have examined species differences in cue preference, few studies have investigated differences in cue use within a species. In this study, we used a one-trial associative food-finding task to test for sex differences in cue use in the great tit, Parus major. Birds were trained to locate a food reward hidden in a well covered by a coloured cloth. To determine whether the colour of the cloth or the location of the well was learned during training, the birds were presented with three wells in the test phase: one in the original location, but covered by a cloth of a novel colour, a second in a new location covered with the original cloth and a third in a new location covered by a differently coloured cloth. Both sexes preferentially visited the well in the training location rather than either alternative. As great tits prefer colour cues over spatial cues in one-trial associative conditioning tasks, cue preference appears to be related to the task type rather than being species dependent.
Address Ashworth Laboratories, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK. s.healy@ed.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15611879 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2499
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Author Hampton, R.R.; Shettleworth, S.J.
Title Hippocampal lesions impair memory for location but not color in passerine birds Type Journal Article
Year 1996 Publication Behavioral neuroscience Abbreviated Journal Behav Neurosci
Volume 110 Issue (up) 4 Pages 831-835
Keywords Animals; Appetitive Behavior/physiology; Birds/*physiology; Brain Mapping; Color Perception/*physiology; Discrimination Learning/physiology; Hippocampus/*physiology; Long-Term Potentiation/physiology; Mental Recall/*physiology; Orientation/*physiology; Species Specificity
Abstract The effects of hippocampal complex lesions on memory for location and color were assessed in black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus) and dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) in operant tests of matching to sample. Before surgery, most birds were more accurate on tests of memory for location than on tests of memory for color. Damage to the hippocampal complex caused a decline in memory for location, whereas memory for color was not affected in the same birds. This dissociation indicates that the avian hippocampus plays an important role in spatial cognition and suggests that this brain structure may play no role in working memory generally.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7044 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:8864273 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 376
Permanent link to this record