Cognition, Ecology and Evolution in Wild Passerine Birds

学习和记忆对于许多物种的成功繁殖、资源获取和躲避捕食者至关重要。尽管认知和神经系统之间的联系在上个世纪已经得到了深入的研究，但我们仍然对当代物种在认知能力上的差异知之甚少。我的研究计划的长期目标是了解认知是如何在野外自然选择的形状。我们的短期目标包括研究野生雀形目鸟类的空间记忆、学习和创新能力的进化。空间记忆被认为对囤积食物的鸟类至关重要，因为这些物种制造了数千个缓存，并在几周后通过记住它们的确切位置来重新定位它们。关于食物囤积的研究依赖于一个未经检验的假设，即具有较好空间记忆的个体在严冬中生存得更好;我建议用当地的野生黑顶山雀种群来检验这一点。我们还将使用这个新监测的人口来研究空间记忆和学习的相对贡献，以生存在不同水平的人为改造的栖息地为特征。我的团队还将研究灰松鸦种群空间认知的进化，由于气候变化和由此产生的秋季温度升高，灰松鸦的食物储备会降低，灰松鸦种群的空间认知最近有所下降。我们将研究松鸦的能力，在使用一种新的，不易腐烂的食物类型，使他们的缓存，并将评估这种觅食创新的影响，他们的繁殖成功。我们还将继续对英国牛津Wytham Woods的非囤积型大山雀学习能力的进化进行持续研究，一组国际研究人员每年研究超过1000只鸟类。我希望我们的研究有助于更好地理解认知如何在脊椎动物的自然种群中进化，这与理解我们自己的智力进化有关。

Learning and memory are essential for successful reproduction, resource acquisition and predator avoidance in a wide diversity of species. Although the links between cognition and the nervous system have been studied intensively in the last century, we still know very little on why contemporary species differ in cognitive abilities. The long-term objective of my research program is to understand how cognition is shaped by natural selection in the wild. Our short-term objectives include the study of the evolution of spatial memory, learning, and innovativeness in wild passerine birds. Spatial memory is thought to be critical for food-hoarding birds, because these species make thousands of caches and relocate them by remembering their exact locations several weeks later. Research on food-hoarding relies on the untested assumption that individuals with better spatial memory survive better through harsh winters; I propose to test this using a local population of wild black-capped chickadees. We will also use this newly-monitored population to examine the relative contribution of spatial memory and learning to survival in habitats characterised by different levels of anthropogenic modification. My team will also examine the evolution of spatial cognition in a population of gray jays that has been shown to decline recenty due to climate change and the resulting elevated fall temperature that degrades the jays' food caches. We will examine the jays' ability at using a novel, non-perishable food type to make their caches and will assess the impact of this foraging innovation on their reproductive success. We will also continue ongoing research on the evolution of learning ability in non-hoarding great tits of Oxford's Wytham Woods, United Kingdom, where >1000 individual birds are studied every year by a group of international researchers. I expect our research to contribute to a better understanding of how cognition evolves in natural populations of vertebrates, which is relevant to understanding the evolution of our own intelligence.