SGER: Exploratory Techniques for the Study of Parrot Behavioral Ecology

非技术摘要提案编号：9811611 PI：Pepperberg，Iene M.Humphrey(1976年)提出，智力源于对动物有利的选择过程，这些动物记住并根据群体成员之间详细的社会关系的知识行事，即复杂的社会制度和长寿与智力相关。对这一观点的测试主要集中在灵长类动物身上。这个项目将研究扩展到鸟类。比较社会物种及其生态和社会选择压力将有助于洞察认知和复杂交流系统的进化。灰鹦鹉是理想的研究对象；它们是为数不多的有足够认知和交流实验室数据的鸟类之一。该项目将提供来自大自然的行为数据，以验证汉弗莱的假设。其目标是：(1)使用全球定位系统数据将传统观察(包括视频和音频记录)和甚高频无线电跟踪与新技术相结合；以及(2)应用这些技术来确定灰鹦鹉的测距模式、社会组织和发声行为，以解决关于灰鹦鹉在实验室中表现出的认知能力的生态解释、社会性在智力进化中的作用以及导致鸟类发声变化的过程的假说。随着GPS/VHF混合跟踪技术的发展，该项目将对动物研究技术产生影响。研究结果将有利于保护工作，揭示不同物种间智力的进化，并为鸟类的发声学习提供见解。

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.