Function and flexibility of object exploration in kea and New Caledonian crows

Area of Science:

• Cognitive ethology
• Animal behavior and cognition

Background:

• Non-human animals explore objects to learn physical properties.
• The application of learned information to novel problems and adaptive exploration remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if kea (Nestor notabilis) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) can apply object exploration knowledge to tool-use tasks.
• To determine if these birds adjust their exploratory behavior to seek functional information.

Main Methods:

• Subjects explored novel objects before and after a tool-use task.
• Performance in selecting functional tools from explored objects was assessed in test trials.
• Exploratory behavior duration and quality were analyzed after learning object function.

Main Results:

• Both kea and New Caledonian crows performed above chance in selecting functional tools after exploration.
• Performance was significantly better after the exploration phase compared to a control.
• Neither species altered their exploration duration or quality after learning object relevance.

Conclusions:

• Object exploration provides information that guides functional tool selection in these bird species.
• Birds do not appear to modify their exploration to specifically seek functional information about objects.