Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) modify caching behavior when observed

The featured article of this issue focused on a species with relatively simple sociality-Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana; Tornick & Gibson, 2021; Figure 1), a species that regularly (and readily in experimental conditions) caches food items. The question at hand was whether individual nutcrackers cached food items-and then later retrieved them-differently depending upon whether they were being observed by a conspecific or not at the time of caching. Tornick and Gibson (2021) found that individual nutcrackers were highly sensitive to whether they were being observed by a conspecific. When they were being observed, nutcrackers cached more food items behind the barrier than in the visible area of their cage. However, in the "private" condition when they were not being observed, nutcrackers cached food items roughly equally in the two areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).