Abstract
A range of non-human animals frequently manipulate and explore objects in their environment, which may enable them to learn about physical properties and potentially form more abstract concepts of properties such as weight and rigidity. Whether animals can apply the information learned during their exploration to solve novel problems, however, and whether they actually change their exploratory behaviour to seek functional information about objects have not been fully explored. We allowed kea (Nestor notabilis) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) to explore sets of novel objects both before and after encountering a task in which some of the objects could function as tools. Following this, subjects were given test trials in which they could choose among the objects they had explored to solve a tool-use task. Several individuals from both species performed above chance on these test trials, and only did so after exploring the objects, compared with a control experiment with no prior exploration phase. These results suggest that selection of functional tools may be guided by information acquired during exploration. Neither kea nor crows changed the duration or quality of their exploration after learning that the objects had a functional relevance, suggesting that birds do not adjust their behaviour to explicitly seek this information.
Highlights
Unrewarded object exploration is widespread among non-human animals, and is thought to confer important benefits by allowing individuals to develop motor skills for foraging and engage in novel behaviour patterns that may lead to innovative foraging strategies [1,2,3]
Recent comparative studies within parrots and corvids have shown that species proficient in tool use, either in the wild or in experimental contexts, showed high frequencies of combined object manipulation compared with non-tool-using species, either during ontogeny or in adulthood [18,19]
What information is being gained from exploration of an object that may later translate to its functional use? Do animals change the way they explore objects in order to gain information about them? There is some evidence to suggest that tool-using primates such as chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys can learn about potential tools through exploration
Summary
Subjects were eight captive-born kea (one adult female, six adult males and one sub-adult male) housed at the Haidlhof Research Station (University of Veterinary Medicine and University of Vienna) in Bad Vöslau, Austria. Three of the kea (KE, FR and PI) had participated in studies focusing on tool use and object exploration, some of which involved subjects using rigid stick tools Generalist foragers that do not naturally use tools in the wild, they generally forage under rocks or for embedded foods [34]; weight may be a salient property for them. Subjects were six wild-caught New Caledonian crows (three juvenile males; one adult male and two adult females) housed in captivity for approximately five weeks prior to the start of testing. During testing the birds concurrently participated in a hand tracking study [36], but otherwise had no experience with artificial tasks that required them to attend to structural object properties, we note that subjects likely had experience using stick tools in the wild. Rigidity may be a salient structural property for the crow subjects
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