Award details

Tool-oriented behaviour in the New Caledonia Crow

Reference	BB/C517392/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Alex Kacelnik
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Christian Rutz, Mr Alexander Weir
Institution	University of Oxford
Department	Zoology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	535,311
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/2005
End date	31/03/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

I propose to study cognitive adaptations for tool-oriented behaviour (TOB, including both manufacture and use of tools) in New Caledonian Crows (NCCs; Corvus moneduloides). TOB in this species has many outstanding attributes: NCCs exceed most other tool-using animals in the frequency of their TOB, the diversity and complexity of their tool shapes, their ability to select tools for appropriate tasks, and in individuals capacity to create new tools according to need. There are strong indications that culture plays an important role and that there may be cultural transmission of technical improvements in tool shape. I propose to extend previous studies by focusing on three themes: behavioural ontogeny, cognitive abilities, and the socio-ecological context of TOB. Ontogeny will be studied both in the laboratory and in the field. In captivity we will rear individuals with different opportunities for observing tool manufacture and use, and record the differences created by rearing regime. In the field we aim to monitor the natural acquisition of TOB and the contribution of social learning. Cognitive abilities will be studied with various experiments based on the following rationale: a subject is given a new food extraction problem and allowed to learn how to solve it. Once criterion is reached, the apparatus will be transformed such that the new solution can be deduced by logical inference and, of course, also by trial and error learning. Correct behaviour from the first encounter after the transformation is evidence of the use of logical inference (our working definition of reasoning). In a typical example a subject obtains food by making a food-containing ball fall onto one of two sloped surfaces one leading to a blind alley and the other to an opening. The direction in which the ball will roll and hence the correct action to obtain the food can be predicted from the slope of the surface and the notion of gravity. We expect the number of trials required to achieve the correct action after each transformation to decrease and perhaps reach the ideal first-trial solution. If this happens, NCCs would have outperformed even chimpanzees in exploiting gravity. Other tests include secondary tool use (using a tool to retrieve a second tool necessary to solve a given task), creative hook making (we have shown this already in one individual) and its opposite, unbending a wire to make a tool long enough to reach food. The socio-ecological context of TOB will be studied in the wild using a combination of proven and new remote sensing instruments. We will use both location- and activity-sensitive radio-transmitters (both tested systems) that allow us to locate individuals and collect information about what they are doing (one of the named researchers has used these techniques successfully in other species). The main new technique is the mounting of miniature cameras on free-ranging birds. This would provide a bird¿s view of the details of tool making, the identity of prey collected by tools and by other foraging modes, and the social context in which TOB takes place. In the case of juveniles, it may give crucial clues as to how TOB is acquired and improved. This last technique will be developed in collaboration with an experienced practitioner who pioneered it to make BBC films with pigeons. The combination of laboratory and field work, and the work on both juveniles and adults is ambitious, but I start with two experienced investigators and with tested technical resources for about three quarters of the goals. I expect this project to contribute substantially to understanding what makes this species special and what conditions favour the evolution of tool using and intelligence.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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