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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Blackburn, Grace, Ashton, Benjamin J, Hunter, Holly, Ridley, Amanda R
Format: Artículo científico
Language:en
Published: Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2025
Online Access:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40979804/
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author Blackburn, Grace
Ashton, Benjamin J
Hunter, Holly
Ridley, Amanda R
author_facet Blackburn, Grace
Ashton, Benjamin J
Hunter, Holly
Ridley, Amanda R
Blackburn, Grace
Ashton, Benjamin J
Hunter, Holly
Ridley, Amanda R
collection PubMed - marine biology
contents Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird. Blackburn, Grace Ashton, Benjamin J Hunter, Holly Ridley, Amanda R Quantity discrimination abilities are considered a valuable skill for many aspects of life, including foraging, predator avoidance, and intergroup contests. Two types of experiments are often utilized to detect such abilities in animals; cognitive tasks in which individuals must choose between two quantities of food, and playback experiments of the vocalizations of differing numbers of intruding individuals. To date, no study has investigated whether individual performance in these two types of experiments is related. We presented wild Western Australian magpies () with both a spontaneous quantity discrimination cognitive task and a playback experiment, to investigate quantity discrimination abilities, and to explore if performance on these experiments is related. We found that magpies (1) selected the greater quantity of food in the cognitive task and (2) responded more strongly to playback of three callers compared to one caller, suggesting this species possesses quantity discrimination abilities. Individual performance on these two experiments was negatively correlated, with magpies that performed better on the cognitive task spending less time vigilant following the three-caller playback compared to magpies that performed worse. Our results highlight the importance of exploring the relationship between performance in a cognitive task and ecologically relevant behaviors, as this has the potential to offer profound insights into cognitive ecology.
format Artículo científico
id pubmed_40979804
institution PubMed
language en
publishDate 2025
publisher Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology
record_format pubmed
spellingShingle Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird.
Blackburn, Grace
Ashton, Benjamin J
Hunter, Holly
Ridley, Amanda R
Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird. Blackburn, Grace Ashton, Benjamin J Hunter, Holly Ridley, Amanda R Quantity discrimination abilities are considered a valuable skill for many aspects of life, including foraging, predator avoidance, and intergroup contests. Two types of experiments are often utilized to detect such abilities in animals; cognitive tasks in which individuals must choose between two quantities of food, and playback experiments of the vocalizations of differing numbers of intruding individuals. To date, no study has investigated whether individual performance in these two types of experiments is related. We presented wild Western Australian magpies () with both a spontaneous quantity discrimination cognitive task and a playback experiment, to investigate quantity discrimination abilities, and to explore if performance on these experiments is related. We found that magpies (1) selected the greater quantity of food in the cognitive task and (2) responded more strongly to playback of three callers compared to one caller, suggesting this species possesses quantity discrimination abilities. Individual performance on these two experiments was negatively correlated, with magpies that performed better on the cognitive task spending less time vigilant following the three-caller playback compared to magpies that performed worse. Our results highlight the importance of exploring the relationship between performance in a cognitive task and ecologically relevant behaviors, as this has the potential to offer profound insights into cognitive ecology.
title Response to intruder number is related to spontaneous quantity discrimination performance in a wild bird.
url https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40979804/