An astonishing discovery about crows and ravens suggests that they have some traits pretty similar to humans.
Scientists have just made a remarkable discovery about ravens and crows that indicates that we’re not so different from them after all. The study, published by researchers at Sweden’s Lund University in the journal Science, suggests that corvids, a bird family that includes ravens and crows, are capable of planning ahead, something that has been seen only in humans and apes.
Corvids have long had a reputation for being exceptionally smart creatures, but this new finding suggests we may have a lot more to learn about them. For this study, scientists took five ravens and gave them a series of puzzles, first showing them how to open the puzzle box that contained a treat with a specific tool
They then gave the ravens other random objects which did not open the box, so that they would know which tool to focus on when presented with a choice. Then they took the puzzle box away, and provided the tools. Fifteen minutes later, the puzzle box was provided. In about 86 percent of cases, the raven chose the right tool before the puzzle box came out, except for one female raven who figured out how to get in the box without any tool.
The statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science follows below.
Despite previous research that indicates such behaviors are unique to humans and great apes, a new study shows that ravens, too, can plan ahead for different types of events , and further, that they are willing to forgo an immediate reward in order to gain a better one in the future.
As ravens and great apes have not shared a common ancestor for over 300 million years, these results suggest that the cognitive “planning” abilities they share in common re-appeared, on a separate evolutionary path, in the birds. The complex cognitive task of planning ahead has almost exclusively been observed in humans and great apes. Some corvids, a family of birds that includes ravens, have also demonstrated the ability to plan beyond the current moment – but such findings have been confined to caching food.
Here, Can Kabadayi and colleagues sought to further explore the ability of ravens to plan ahead through a series of experiments. First, ravens were trained to use a tool to open a puzzle box in order to access a reward. The ravens were then presented with the box, but not the tool. The box was removed and one hour later the ravens were given the opening tool, as well as several “distractors.” Nearly every raven chose the correct, apparatus-opening tool; upon being presented with the box 15 minutes later, they used the tool to open it, with a success rate of 86%. A high success rate (78%) was also seen in similar experiments where ravens used a token to later barter for a reward.
The ravens planned for bartering more accurately than apes, the researchers report, and they were on par with them in the tool-using tasks, despite lacking predispositions for tool handling. Next, the ravens were presented with the correct, apparatus-opening tool, distractor tools, and an immediate reward, but were only permitted to select one item. The immediate reward was less appealing than the reward in the box, the researchers report, demonstrating a level of self-control in the birds similar to that seen in apes. Markus Boeckle and Nicola S. Clayton discuss these finding in a related Perspective.
The summary from the actual paper published in Science follows below.
The human brain stores memories of past events to guide decision-making about current and future events. Researchers long assumed that animals do not use memories in this way but rather exist in a constant stream of present needs, unable to plan for the future (1). Studies on nonhuman primates and corvids challenge this view and show that some species can plan for the future at least as well as 4-year old children (2, 3).
These results suggest that planning for the future is not uniquely human and evolved independently in distantly related species to address common problems (4). On page 202 of this issue, Kabadayi and Osvath (5) show that ravens anticipate the nature, time, and location of a future event based on previous experiences. The ravens’ behavior is not merely prospective, anticipating future states (6); rather, they flexibly apply future planning in behaviors not typically seen in the wild.
Here’s how the paper described the five birds that participated in the study:
Five (three females) adult ravens took part in this study. All birds were hand-raised and housed as a social group in environmentally enriched outdoor aviaries (400 m2 ) at the Lund University Corvid Cognition Station in Sweden. All subjects were tested individually in familiar experimental compartments, and had ad libitum access to food and water.
Each of the four experiments consisted of two conditions: a tool condition and a bartering condition. Four individuals took part in the experimental conditions involving tool use: Rickard (m), Juno (f), None (f) and Embla (f), and four individuals took part in the experimental conditions involving bartering: Rickard (m), Juno (f), None (f) and Siden (m). The reasons for this division were that one individual was too neophobic to approach the tool-use apparatus and learn its function, while another individual was not previously trained in bartering. Four individuals were in their 5th year during the time of testing, and Embla was in her 2nd year.
Read Again Scientists shocked by huge discovery about birds : http://ift.tt/2t5VMuhBagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Scientists shocked by huge discovery about birds"
Post a Comment