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Related Experiment Videos

An evolutionary perspective on caching by corvids.

Selvino R de Kort1, Nicola S Clayton

  • 1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK. selvino@selvino.nl

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|April 18, 2006
PubMed
Summary
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Corvid birds evolved caching behaviors convergently, with specialized food caching arising independently multiple times. This explains variations in memory and brain adaptations not predicted by simple adaptive specialization.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Food-caching species show hoarding correlated with memory and hippocampal adaptations.
  • Some species deviate from this pattern, suggesting other evolutionary factors are at play.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary history of caching behavior in corvids.
  • To understand how phylogenetic relatedness influences caching adaptations.
  • To explain discrepancies in the adaptive specialization hypothesis.

Main Methods:

  • Reconstruction of ancestral caching states in corvids.
  • Analysis of caching behavior transitions within the corvid phylogeny.

Main Results:

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  • The common ancestor of corvids was a moderate cacher.
  • Corvids exhibit a bi-directional evolutionary trajectory for caching.
  • Caching was lost twice, with at least two independent transitions to specialized caching.

    • Conclusions:

    • Specialized caching in corvids evolved convergently, with different physical adaptations (e.g., food pouches).
    • Convergent evolution may explain varied memory and hippocampal adaptations.
    • Phylogenetic analysis better explains deviations from the adaptive specialization hypothesis.