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Bird Brains

parrotslave

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parrotslave
Joined
Feb 15, 2007
Messages
247
Scientific American has an article about the intelligence of ravens in the April 2007 edition.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=5BBE6143-E7F2-99DF-333BD2110A8790EE

They charge a fee to read it, but an avian science blogger has provided us with an excellent review of the high points.

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/04/just_how_smart_are_ravens.php#more

They begin by noting that ravens are not the only birds that are reputed to behave intelligently. They state that other relatives of the ravens -- the corvids, such as crows, jays, magpies and nutcrackers -- appear to possess surprising and sophisticated mental abilities. They even mention that these birds' capacities appear to be equivalent to or to even surpass those of the great apes. For example, nutcrackers have the capacity to recall thousands of locations where they have cached food items -- a capacity that exceeds that of humans.

Which leads us to ask; do corvids rely on logic to solve problems or are they relying on instinct? Do covids distinguish between each other and alter their behaviors accoridngly?
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The experimenters found that ravens used logic, observation and memory instead of just acting on instinct, but pulleys confound them.
 
It depends on what you mean by `intelligence'. For humans, it really means the ability to do well in IQ tests. Nutcrackers are very highly adapted for hiding and finding nuts, but will probably be very poor at other aspects of `intelligence' as defined by ourselves. Chickens are I believe poor at logic - they can't work out how to navigate to food that's behind a wire fence with an open end a short distance away. ISTR a story about a parrot with the IQ of a human 4 year old, but that may have been discredited. It's a very interesting line of thought and research, particularly in relation to factors such as brain and body size ratio.
 
I find it surprising that the researches say that the string pulling technique is not a pre-programmed behavior as there is no equivalent task in the wild. I would have thought that trying to pull a worm or similar animal out of the ground would require the same technique.
 
Asolepius said:
It depends on what you mean by `intelligence'. For humans, it really means the ability to do well in IQ tests. Nutcrackers are very highly adapted for hiding and finding nuts, but will probably be very poor at other aspects of `intelligence' as defined by ourselves. Chickens are I believe poor at logic - they can't work out how to navigate to food that's behind a wire fence with an open end a short distance away. ISTR a story about a parrot with the IQ of a human 4 year old, but that may have been discredited. It's a very interesting line of thought and research, particularly in relation to factors such as brain and body size ratio.
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In this case it means tool using and problem solving.
 
Orangutan said:
I find it surprising that the researches say that the string pulling technique is not a pre-programmed behavior as there is no equivalent task in the wild. I would have thought that trying to pull a worm or similar animal out of the ground would require the same technique.
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On the first try suggested thinking the problem through before attempting it. But I would say the raven may just have done something similar. Those buggers are darn clever in ways to pull the trash out of the cans on trash day.

I don't think you can say the behavior is instinct like my dogs are hardwired to dig up the moles they detect in the yard. I think you can say there is individual problem solving going on there. Pulling up a worm, stepping on it and pulling up again is more plausibly a hardwired bird behavior.
 
As an (ex) parrot owner, I can attest to their intelligence. My parrot used to drop food on the floor outside it's cage, call the dogs (by name,) and then reach through the bars to pull their fur when they came for the food. Then she (I think it was a she) would sit back and laugh. The dogs always fell for it. It showed planning, recognition of individuals, and a sense of humor. Not much more needed for me. By the way, comparing chickens to ravens (or parrots) is like comparing humans to rhesus monkeys. It isn't even close. And the above mentioned study was about Alex the parrot - google the alex project, which is ongoing, to find out more. Alex can count, discern between types of materials, and much more. For example, when asked how many 'metal' keys that are blue, he can count only the metal ones (as opposed to wood, say) that are blue, not red or green, and are keys and not some other object. try that with your dog - or even your 4-year old.
 
Birds plan for the future

Birds found to plan for the future

Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?

Selection of tool diameter by New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides

Problem solving skills in young yellow-crowned parakeets (Cyanoramphus auriceps)

Place and Object Learning in Chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Carter, D. E. & Eckerman, D. A. 1975 Symbolic matching by pigeons: rate of learning complex discriminations predicted from simple discriminations. Science 187, 662–664.

Kamil, A., and R. Balda. 1985. Cache recovery and spatial memory in Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana). Journal of Experimental Psychology and Animal Behavioral Processes 11:95-111.

Bennett, A. T. D. 1993 Spatial memory in a food storing corvid. I. Near tall landmarks are primarily used. J. Comp. Physiol. A 173, 193–207. (doi:10.1007/BF00192978)

Healy, S. D. & Hurly, T. A. 1995 Spatial memory in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus): a field test. Anim. Learn. Behav. 23, 63–68.

Jones, T. B. & Kamil, A. C. 1973 Tool-making and tool-using in the northern blue jay. Science 180, 1076–1078.

Crow making tools

Bugnyar, T. & Kotrschal, K. 2002 Observational learning and the raiding of food caches in ravens, Corvus corax: is it 'tactical' deception? Anim. Behav. 64, 185–195. (doi:10.1006/anbe.2002.3056)

Iwaniuk, A.N. and Nelson, J.E. (2003) Developmental differences are correlated with relative brain size in birds: A comparative analysis. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81: 1913-1928.

N.J. Emery and N.S. Clayton, The mentality of crows: convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes, Science 306 (2004), pp. 1903–1907

Elvira Cordileone (2006). Are Birds Trying to Tell Us Things? (article). Toronto Star. Retrieved on 7 May 2006. publication date: 23 Mar. 2006

Pepperberg, I. M. 1999 The Alex studies: cognitive and communicative abilities of Grey parrots. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Macaw clay licks

Watve Milind, Thakar J, Kale A, Pitambekar S. Shaikh I Vaze K, Jog M. Paranjape S. 2002. Bee-eaters ( Merops orientalis) respond to what a predator can see. Animal Cognition 5(4):253-9

Avian Visual Cognition edited by Robert G. Cook - a cyber book containing much material about pigeons

Avian Brain Nomenclature Consortium

An overview of the brain at the Life of Birds website
http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/brain/

The anatomy of a bird brain
http://www.earthlife.net/birds/nerves.html

Crow Makes Tool by Bending Wire to Snag Food
http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/crowintel.htm

Tool using in birds
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/tools/toolpublications.shtml

http://www.abc.net.au/nt/stories/s1309162.htm

http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/(z2kp1v453udbyz45oh4hjsbw)
/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,3,14 ;journal,
17,230;linkingpublicationresults,1:102022,1

MILLENNIUM REVIEW Avian Cognitive Abilities

Evolution of the avian brain and intelligence

The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes

Allospecific referential speech acquisition in Grey parrots (psittacus erithacus): evidence for multiple levels of avian vocal imitation
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=762901

Scientific Evidence that Birds are Aware, Intelligent, and Astonishingly Like Humans: Implications and Future Research Directions
http://www.psyeta.org/hia/vol8/barber.html

Appreciating avian intelligence: the importance of a proper domestic environment.
C Davis - J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1998 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Delayed search for social and nonsocial goals by young
domestic chicks, Gallus gallus domesticus

Searching for the center: Spatial cognition in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus)

Discrimination of group members by laying hens Gallus domesticus

Visual cognition and representation in birds and primates

Perception of partly occluded objects by young chicks

Detour behaviour, imprinting and visual lateralization in the domestic chick

Delayed search for a concealed imprinted object in the domestic chick

Young chickens learn to localize the centre of a spatial environment


A case of quick problem solving in birds: string pulling in keas, Nestor notabilis

ndividuality in Problem Solving: String Pulling in Two Carduelis Species (Aves: Passeriformes)

Cognition in an African gray parrot(Psittacus erithacus)

Numerical competence in an African gray parrot(Psittacus erithacus)

Categorical discrimination and generalization in pigeons all negative stimuli are not created equal

Prototype effects in categorization by pigeons

Categorical discrimination of objects and pictures by pigeons
 
Iamme said:
Are there religious implications to this, in your mind?
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No, there are implications some people feel more superior to animals than they have evidence to support. Religion reinforces that belief. But I have no need to affirm my observation. It's only when someone claims the opposite, that animal behavior is all hardwired, unintelligent, and so on, that I bring up the fact religious beliefs interfere with interpretation of the evidence.

Other than that, I'm just enamored by the wonders of the Universe.

Do you have any passion for the world around you? Are you not fascinated to find out what animal brains are capable of?

My favorite animal story (sorry if you've heard it):

We were car camping and some raccoons got into the car and were into the oatmeal. So we put 2 candles out on the ground and put some oatmeal in between and waited to watch the raccoons knowing we hadn't chased them very far away.

One raccoon approached and picked up each candle one at a time, turned them over and snuffed them out in the dirt. It was absolutely incredible.


Like I said, I love animal intelligence research!
 
One question that I haven't been able to find research on is do birds understand the difference between real and pretend?

My birds have been watching PBS kids shows just about every day for seven years. They recognize characters, have learned lessons like sharing, taking turns, and using please and thank you. One bird has even learned to recognize some letters. But I wonder if they think what they see on TV is real.
 
parrotslave said:
Every time my cockatoo says, "Oh my god!" I wonder the same thing.
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You could catalog this away along with the mother who says she sees her baby staring at some corner of the ceiling, and perhaps trying to either utter something or just smile, as proof that and angel is up there.
 
parrotslave said:
One question that I haven't been able to find research on is do birds understand the difference between real and pretend?

My birds have been watching PBS kids shows just about every day for seven years. They recognize characters, have learned lessons like sharing, taking turns, and using please and thank you. One bird has even learned to recognize some letters. But I wonder if they think what they see on TV is real.
Click to expand...

Ask em. :)
 
Hey, old Eau Claro amigo. Welcome back.
One time I was interested in doing research with crows and got a federal licence, because you can't keep crows without one. We got an injured baby from a local wildlife preserve and raised it in our apartment. Science diet dog food moistened and dropped into its gaping maw. We named it Crowunit, in part because of Frank Zappa.
At the time, some local teenagers were supposedly involved in a satanic cult and murdered another kid. This horrible crime was labeled satanic because the graffitti they painted in a local park praised "Satin". Go figger.
Well, our demented landlord decided that we must have been devil worshippers or witches because we had a crow and evicted us, even though other tenants had cats, dogs, and even 6 noisy parakeets.
I had to take him to my lab and set up all sorts of tasks for him to keep him amused.

ETA, the crow, not the landlord.
 
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