Tag: animal intelligence

researchers at the university of cambridge have found that eurasian jays, a member of the corvid family, may show empathy, and cater to their partners’ needs. researchers fed a female jay where her partner could see her. there were two bugs that were fed: mealworms and waxworms. researchers fed only one kind. after receiving many, the jays wanted the other option. when the males were allowed to feed the female, they gave her the bug she had not been fed. when researchers fed the females out of sight, the jays did not know which was preferred and fed both bugs to their mate equally.

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researchers explored the idea that parrots not only understand the concept of sharing, but the potential social benefits of it. griffin the african grey parrot was presented with four cups, with each cup’s color assigned a consequence. the green cup represented sharing, where both griffin and a human counterpart received a treat. the pink cup rewarded only griffin. the orange cup gave up griffin’s treat to the person, and the purple cup did not reward anyone. in the experiment, each round of the test began with griffin choosing a cup. student (human) subjects then echoed his choice. after several rounds, griffin understood he would gain a better outcome from sharing. earlier tests showed that when students chose to share with griffin, he was likely to reciprocate, but if the students chose the treat for themselves, griffin likely wouldn’t share.

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researchers discovered that, with some training, pigeons are capable of understanding the concept of mathematical values. pigeons can rank amounts from lowest to highest by pecking them on a screen. pigeons were able to successfully rank up to nine objects in order. their performance matched that of rhesus monkeys who had previously participated in the same experiment.

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researchers found that ravens are capable of planning for the future. while they exhibit some of this behavior in the wild, such as storing food, more complex examples were found during testing. ravens were able to store a tool for accessing food and retrieve it later when presented with opportunity to use it, and also understood the value of saving a token that could be exchanged at a later time for food.

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crows and ravens have demostrated a knowledge of ‘fairness’ – and demand equal treatment. researchers did an ‘inequity test’ on the birds. some birds received cheese, a high value treat, and others received a piece of grape, which was not desirable. those who received the grape started refusing to accept it. the researchers then performed an ‘effort control’ test. some birds were given a piece of cheese with nothing required of them. other birds could choose from cheese or a grape – but had to exchange a token for them. again, the birds that were being treated unfairly refused to cooperate.

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researchers created a small ‘vending machine’ for crows, accompanied with small slips of paper that could be used to operate the machine. the crows quickly figured out how to use the machine. next, the crows were given papers that were the incorrect size. the crows fashioned them into the right size for the machine. it was predicted this would happen – in the wild, crows have been observed on many occasions using tools they fashion themselves to get what they want.

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even though magpies sometimes have a reputation for being annoyances, their intelligence can’t be denied. magpies are one of few non-primate animals to pass the mirror self-recognition test. after placing a colored sticker on the magpie and showing it a mirror, the magpie recognized that it was its own body and removed the sticker. magpies have a brain-to-body ratio comparable to that of great apes.

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