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

在自然界中，最强壮、最强壮、最大的动物会成功，这可以从更长的寿命和更多的后代中得到证明，而速度较慢、较弱、较小的动物往往不太成功。 解剖学和生理学特征是动物用来提高生存和繁殖能力的武器库的一部分。 在这里，我们认为认知能力也可能是武器库的一部分。在这项研究中，我们计划测量诸如喙长和羽毛对称性等特征，但更重要的是，我们将测量年轻松鸦的空间记忆和社会认知。这些都是适当的测试，因为这些鸟生活在高度结构化的，永久的社会群体中，每年使用空间记忆来储存和恢复数千种隐藏的食物。每年约有60只幼鸟将被带到实验室进行测试。每一只都将获得两个智商分数，然后被放回原生栖息地，并被跟踪以确定它的寿命和一生中产生多少后代。我们计划跟踪700多只鸟的一生。 越来越多的人意识到，高等动物不仅仅是本能的机器人生物或简单学习程序的奴隶。有些动物似乎在一组环境下学习它们的环境和同伴，然后将这种学习应用于新的情况。松鸦是一种特殊的鸟类，因为它们生活在一个和谐的社会单位，也是空间记忆专家。迄今为止，动物利用认知能力来实现相对高水平的生物学成功的想法从未在野生动物种群中进行过测试。我们的知识和经验与松鸦将使我们有一个独特的机会，探索这些令人兴奋的问题在野外。

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.