off-topic--Avian intelligence

[AH]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4286965.stm
Crows And Jays Top Bird IQ Scale
WASHINGTON, DC -- Crows and jays are the brain boxes of the bird world,
according to a Canadian scientist who has invented a method of measuring
avian IQ.
The IQ scale is based on the number of novel feeding behaviours shown by
birds in the wild.
The test's creator Dr Louis Lefebvre was surprised that parrots were not
high in the pecking order - despite their relatively large brains.
The research was presented at a major science conference in Washington DC.
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Feeding innovations
The avian intelligence index is based on 2,000 reports of feeding
"innovations" observed in the wild and published in ornithology journals
over a period of 75 years.
"We gathered as many examples as we could from the short notes of
ornithology journals about the feeding behaviours that people had never seen
or were unusual," said Dr Lefebvre, of McGill University in Montreal,
Canada.
"From that we established different numbers for different birds. There are
differences. There are some kinds of birds that score higher than others.
"The crows, the jays, that kind of bird - the corvidae - are the tops; then
the falcons are second, the hawks the herons and the woodpecker rank quite
high."
Dr Lefebvre said that many of the novel feeding behaviours he included in
the work were mundane, but every once in a while, birds could be
spectacularly inventive about obtaining their food.
During the war of liberation in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, a soldier and avid
bird watcher observed vultures sitting on barbwire fences next to mine
fields waiting for gazelles and other herbivores to wander in and get blown
to smithereens.
"It gave them a meal that was already ground up," said Dr Lefebvre.
"The observer mentioned that once in a while a vulture was caught at its own
game and got blown up on a mine."

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Milk thief
Another bird watcher observed a great skua in the Antarctic who joined in
with seal pups feeding on the milk from their mother.
Many of the birds that ranked high on the innovation scale are the least
popular with the public.
"When you look at published reports on whether people like birds or don't
like birds, they don't correlate well with intelligence," said the McGill
researcher.
"People tend not to like crows, because they have this fiendish look to them
and they're black and they like dead prey. Warblers and the birds that
people tend to like are not the high innovators."
But Dr Lefebvre said the scale did not measure how smart birds were, only
how "innovative".
"With the word 'smart' you have to have a value judgment. You can never know
whether a bird has been learning by observation or has figured something out
by itself."
The work was presented to the annual meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
© BBC MMV

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... _apes.html

Crows As Clever As Great Apes, Study Says
National Geographic News
Anyone who has watched crows, jays, ravens and other members of the corvid
family will know they're anything but "birdbrained."
For instance, jays will sit on ant nests, allowing the angry insects to
douse them with formic acid, a natural pesticide which helps rid the birds
of parasites. Urban-living carrion crows have learned to use road traffic
for cracking tough nuts. They do this at traffic light crossings, waiting
patiently with human pedestrians for a red light before retrieving their
prize.
Yet corvids may be even cleverer than we think. A new study suggests their
cognitive abilities are a match for primates such as chimpanzees and
gorillas. Furthermore, crows may provide clues to understanding human
intelligence.
Published tomorrow in the journal Science, the study is co-authored by
Nathan Emery and Nicola Clayton, from the departments of animal behavior and
experimental psychology at Cambridge University, England.
They say that, while having very different brain structures, both crows and
primates use a combination of mental tools, including imagination and the
anticipation of possible future events, to solve similar problems. They base
their argument on existing studies.
Emery and Clayton write, "These studies have found that some corvids are not
only superior in intelligence to birds of other avian species (perhaps with
the exception of some parrots), but also rival many nonhuman primates."
Increasingly, scientists agree that it isn't physical need that makes animal
smart, but social necessity. Group living tends to be a complicated
business, so for individuals to prosper they need to understand exactly
what's going on. So highly social creatures like dolphins, chimps, and
humans tend to be large-brained and intelligent.
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Large Brains
The study notes that crows are also social and have unusually large brains
for their size. "It is relatively the same size as the chimpanzee brain,"
the authors said.
They say that crows and apes both think about their social and physical
surroundings in complex ways, using tool use as an example.
Like apes, many birds employ tools to gather food, but it isn't clear
whether chimps or crows appreciate how these tools work. It may be that they
simply discover their usefulness by accident. However, studies of New
Caledonian crows, from the South Pacific, suggest otherwise.
New Caledonian crows manufacture two very different types of tool for
finding prey. Hooks crafted from twigs are used to poke grubs from holes in
trees, while they also cut up stiff leaves with their beaks, carefully
sculpting them into sharp instruments for probing leaf detritus for insects
and other invertebrates.
A New Caledonian crow in captivity learned how to bend a piece of straight
wire into a hook to probe for food. (Watch a video of the crow doing this.)
Such sophisticated tool manufacture and use is unique in non-human wild
animals, according to Jackie Chappell, a UK-based zoologist who has studied
the birds.
Emery and Clayton compare the crow's handiwork to minor human technological
innovations. And because different New Caledonian crow populations make
these tools to slightly different designs, some scientists take this as
evidence of some form of culture, as has been suggested in chimpanzees.
Other corvids may use memories of past experiences to plan ahead.
In the case of Western scrub jays, a previous study by Emery and Clayton
suggests jays with past experience of pilfering food caches collected by
other jays can then use this knowledge to protect their own caches.
Lab experiments showed that if a habitual thief was observed while burying
its own cache, it would later go back and move it when no other bird was
looking. Meanwhile, "innocent" jays did not exhibit the same cunning.
Imagination?
The researchers also argue that such behavior suggests Western scrub jays
are able to second guess another's intentions, or, to put it another way,
get into another bird's mind. In which case, this could be evidence for
imagination.
Emery and Clayton write, "Western scrub jays may present a case for
imagination because the jays needed to have remembered the previous relevant
social context, used their own experience of having been a thief to predict
the behavior of a pilferer, and determined the safest course of action to
protect the caches from pilferage."
Studies to assess similar cognitive abilities in apes have been
inconclusive, according to John Pearce, professor of psychology at Cardiff
University in Wales.
"[The Western scrub jay study] is some of the best evidence going that one
animal can understand what another is thinking," he added.
Pearce believes we can gain insights into the basic mechanisms of human
intelligence through the study of animals. He says language is generally
considered to be one of the major divisions between human and animal
intelligence, which makes Western scrub jays especially noteworthy.
He said, "What's so interesting is that while Western scrub jays may not
have language, the research shows they've got many of the intellectual
abilities that humans have. This suggests that many of our intellectual
abilities which we think we need language for perhaps we don't in fact need
language for. That then makes us try to understand these abilities in a
different way."
If we're as smart as we think we are, perhaps we need to keep an even closer
eye on those clever old crows.
© 2004 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

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AFRICAN GRAY PARROT
The African Gray Parrot Psittacus erithacusor is a highly intelligent, vocal
and social bird. The African Grey is a larger member of the parrot family.
The Congo subspecie body length is 12 to 14 inches; the Timneh is about 10
inches.

The African Gray Parrot is probably best known for its intelligence;
scientists place the Gray among the most intelligent non-human animals, and
its relative IQ has been compared to a human being 2 ­ 5 years of age. Some
individuals demonstrate an understanding of the words in their vocabulary,
and can identify colors and shapes by name. They routinely demonstrate
perceptual (problem solving and reasoning) abilities. Alex, the African
Grey trained by Dr. Irene Pepperberg at Univ. of Arizona-Tucson, can perform
tasks on the same level as a four year old child including distinguishing
colors, shapes, and numbers of objects.

Their intelligence and friendly demeanor make Grays popular companions; as
early as the Roman empire , humans kept them as pets. It is not generally
known when the African Grey was first brought to Europe, but King Henry VIII
of England had a Grey for a pet.

The Grey's ability to speak is legendary. Grey's have been known to have
vocabularies of over 100 words and the ability to understand and use the
words properly. They can also mimic just about anything they hear. All
African Greys have the potential to speak and imitate, not only human, but
all manner of sounds and whistles. This can be both wonderful and annoying
- Is that sound your telephone or your bird?

However, not all Greys speak well or at all. Some birds that are ignored in
their cages imitate sounds and language very well. Others that are handled
and allowed out of their cages on a regular basis may not speak. There¹s no
way to say who will talk and who won¹t. However, most Greys do talk,
starting after their first year of age.

Training your Grey can be fun due to their intelligence and curiosity. Make
training a game. If you want your bird to say a certain phrase, say it in
different ways. Say it in a sing-song way, in a low voice, in a high voice,
in a baby voice, or any other voice. Say the phrase looking directly at the
bird so that he knows you want him to say it. He will get the idea.

To associate a word with an object, such as "cookie". Hold the cookie up so
the bird can see it and say the word clearly. Use the word in a sentence
such as "Do you want a" show the cookie to the bird "cookie?". Let the bird
know what you are talking about. He will get the idea.

Please be a responsible owner - don't teach them foul language. What will
happen if you need to find them a new home some day? The next owner may
not like a bird who curses like a sailor.

Keep a variety of toys in and around the bird¹s cage. A bored Grey will
become a behavior problem. Keep them intellectually stimulated by changing
their toys and interacting with them as much as possible.

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Study of African Gray intelligence U of Arizona, Tucson:

http://www.mecca.org/~rporter/PARROTS/grey_al.html

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