Reaction to novelty as a behavioral assay of recognition memory in homing pigeons and Japanese quail.

Abstract

Spontaneous novelty preference is apparent in a wide array of animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. This provides a powerful behavioral assay to assess whether an animal can recognize a diverse array of stimuli in a common paradigm. Surprisingly, no research has been conducted in birds using novelty approach under conditions comparable to the spontaneous object recognition (SOR) protocols that have become standard across other animals. To correct this, the current study adapts a number of SOR protocols commonly used in mammals to characterize novelty approach in Silver King pigeons and Japanese quail. We show that, in general, both quail and pigeons readily approach novel objects or locations when tested using SOR protocols, although pigeons show a neophilic response under some conditions in which quail do not. Neither quail nor pigeons readily approach objects in novel contexts or novel locations. These data show that SOR can be successfully adapted to birds, allowing for more direct comparison between mammals and birds in tasks of shared ecological relevance.