Problem-solving skills are predicted by technical innovations in the wild and brain size in passerines.

ABSTRACT: Behavioural innovations can provide key advantages for animals in the wild, especially when ecological conditions change rapidly and unexpectedly. Innovation rates can be compared across taxa by compiling field reports of novel behaviours. Large-scale analyses have shown that innovativeness reduces extinction risk, increases colonization success and is associated with increased brain size and pallial neuron numbers. However, appropriate laboratory measurements of innovativeness, necessary to conduct targeted experimental studies, have not been clearly established, despite decades of speculation on the most suitable assay. Here we implemented a battery of cognitive tasks on 203 birds of 15 passerine species and tested for relationships at the interspecific and intraspecific levels with ecol

SUBMITTER: Audet JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11009111 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature