Animals & nature · 2011
When a way of getting food was blocked, did kea or New Caledonian crows switch to a new method faster?
Kea switched faster in this experiment with six kea and five New Caledonian crows. The birds could retrieve food from a box in several ways, and researchers blocked each method once a bird had mastered it. This does not establish that kea are generally smarter: performance varied with the task, and differences in exploration may help explain the results.
Details
The researchers used a box with four ways to extract food, including two that involved tools. All methods were initially available. Once a bird mastered a method, researchers blocked it, requiring the bird to find another solution.
Kea explored more through touch and switched to new solutions faster than the crows when a previously mastered method was blocked. But neither species performed better across all tasks: the crows were more efficient with the stick tool, while kea were more efficient with the ball tool. Only one of the six kea and one of the five crows mastered all four methods.
This small animal experiment compared responses to a particular set of challenges, rather than establishing a ranking of overall intelligence. The authors suggest that exploration style, wariness of unfamiliar things and ways of handling objects likely help explain the differences. The results highlight why comparisons between species need varied tasks.
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