SGER: Exploratory Techniques for the Study of Parrot Behavioral Ecology

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NON-TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Proposal Number: 9811611 PI: Pepperberg, Irene M. Humphrey (1976) proposed that intelligence derives from selection processes favoring animals that remember and act upon knowledge of detailed social relations among group members, i.e. complicated social systems and long lives correlate with intelligence. Tests of this idea have concentrated on primates. This project extends studies to birds. Comparing social species and their ecological and social selective pressures will provide insight into the evolution of cognition and complex communication systems. Grey parrots Psittacus erithacus are ideal subjects; they are among the very few avian species for which sufficient cognitive and communicative laboratory data exist. This project will provide behavioral data from nature to test Humphrey's hypothesis. The objectives are to: (1) combine conventional observations (including video and audio recordings) and VHF radio-tracking with novel techniques using Global Positioning System data; and (2) apply these techniques to determine Grey parrot ranging patterns, social organization, and vocal behavior to address hypotheses about ecological explanations for cognitive abilities Greys exhibit in the laboratory, the role of sociality in the evolution of intelligence, and processes resulting in vocal variation in birds. This project will impact animal research technologies with the development of hybrid GPS/VHF tracking. Results will benefit conservation efforts, and shed light on the evolution of intelligence across diverse species and provide insights concerning vocal learning in birds.