Pick-a-path birds: Can New Caledonian crows plan for different possible futures?
Dr Alexander Taylor, University of Auckland, will test whether New Caledonian crows are capable of planning for future uncertainty. This will determine if planning for alternate future events is unique to humanity or shared with other species
Planning is a key human adaptation. The ability to plan for alternate future events can greatly increase the chance of reproduction and survival as it gives us the capacity to deal with uncertain environments. The apparent lack of this ability among chimpanzees has led to the hypothesis that it is planning for alternate futures that marks a fundamental difference between our minds and those of non-human animals. However, recent studies have shown that birds can perform comparably to primates on a variety of cognitive tasks. One species in particular, the New Caledonian crow, has concurrently evolved tool manufacture skills that are more sophisticated than those seen in chimpanzees, the ability to mentally pre-plan solutions to problems, and the ability to plan flexibly for events occurring 15 minutes into the future. This bird is therefore the model species for testing the hypothesis about the uniqueness of the human mind, namely that one distinct ability of our species is the ability to plan for alternate future events.
New Caledonian crow. Photo supplied
This Marsden Fund research will test if a bird famed for its intelligence, the New Caledonian crow, can plan for alternate future events, while taking into account the probability of different events occurring. Dr Taylor and his team will also carry out experiments to see if these crows take action to try to reduce future uncertainty. Finally, they will examine the temporal scale over which New Caledonian crows can plan for alternate future events.
This research will robustly test whether one of humanity’s most important adaptations, the ability to plan for alternate future events, has evolved in parallel in a non-human animal species. It will lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of human evolution, human uniqueness and convergent evolution, while also potentially increasing awareness of our mental links to the natural world.
New Caledonian crow. Photo supplied