Abstract
Cooperation between individuals is one of the defining features of our species. While other animals, such as chimpanzees, elephants, coral trout and rooks also exhibit cooperative behaviours, it is not clear if they think about cooperation in the same way as humans do. In this study we presented the kea, a parrot endemic to New Zealand, with a series of tasks designed to assess cooperative cognition. We found that keas were capable of working together, even when they had to wait for their partner for up to 65 seconds. The keas also waited for a partner only when a partner was actually needed to gain food. This is the first demonstration that any non-human animal can wait for over a minute for a cooperative partner, and the first conclusive evidence that any bird species can successful track when a cooperative partner is required, and when not. The keas did not attend to whether their partner could actually access the apparatus themselves, which may have been due to issues with task demands, but one kea did show a clear preference for working together with other individuals, rather than alone. This preference has been shown to be present in humans but absent in chimpanzees. Together these results provide the first evidence that a bird species can perform at a similar level to chimpanzees and elephants across a range of collaborative tasks. This raises the possibility that aspects of the cooperative cognition seen in the primate lineage have evolved convergently in birds.
Highlights
Cooperation is one of the defining features of our species
The scope and complexity of cooperative behaviours exhibited by humans is thought to be due to a range of cognitive mechanisms, including those that allow us to understand cooperation [5] and motivate us to collaborate frequently [6]
Over the last two decades a large number of studies have searched for cooperative cognition in other species
Summary
Cooperation is one of the defining features of our species. Our ability to work together in groups played a key part in our evolutionary history and is crucial for the maintenance of our current societies [1,2,3,4]. The ‘loose string’ paradigm has emerged as the benchmark test for examining whether animals understand cooperation [7,8], and are motivated to collaborate [6,9] In this test two animals can pull a platform baited with food rewards within reach if they. We presented the kea (Nestor notabilis), a parrot species endemic to New Zealand, with the loose string task This species lives in complex social groups and exhibits both extractive foraging behaviours and high levels of social play in the wild [16,17,18]. In the final experiment we tested if keas had a prosocial bias for cooperation, in that they preferred to work with a partner to gain food, rather than work alone, when the reward for both tasks was the same
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
