Cognition and Natural Selection: Spatial and Social Cognition in Pinyon Jays

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ

Investigators

Abstract

In nature, the swiftest, strongest, largest animals succeed as evidenced by longer life and more offspring, whereas the slower, weaker, smaller ones often are less successful. Anatomical and physiological traits are part of the arsenal that animals employ to enhance survival and reproduction. Here, we suggest that cognitive abilities may also be part of that arsenal. In this study we plan to measure traits such as bill length and symmetry of feathers, but more importantly, we will measure spatial memory and social cognition in young Pinyon Jays. These are appropriate tests because these birds live in highly structured, permanent social flocks, and store and recover thousands of hidden food items each year using spatial memory to do so. About 60 young birds per year will be brought into the laboratory for testing. Each will achieve two IQ scores and then will be released back into the native habitat and followed to determine how long it lives and how many offspring it produces in its lifetime. We plan to follow over 700 birds through their lives. There is growing awareness that higher animals are more than instinctive robotic creatures or slaves to a program of simple learning. Some animals appear to learn about their environment and fellow associates under one set of circumstances and then apply this learning in novel situations. Pinyon jays are exceptional birds in that they live in a harmonious social unit and are also spatial memory experts. The idea that animals use cognitive abilities to achieve relatively high levels of biological success has never been tested in a wild population of animals to date. Our knowledge and experience with pinyon jays will allow us a unique opportunity to explore these exciting questions in the wild.