Hooded crows (Corvus cornix) manufacture objects relative to a mental template.

ABSTRACT: It was recently found that not only tool-specialized New Caledonian crows, but also Goffin cockatoos can manufacture physical objects in accordance with a mental template. That is, they can emulate features of existing objects when they manufacture new items. Both species spontaneously ripped pieces of card into large strips if they had previously learned that a large template was rewarded, and small strips when they previously learned that a small template was rewarded. Among New Caledonian crows, this cognitive ability was suggested as a potential mechanism underlying the transmission of natural tool designs. Here, we tested for the same ability in another non-specialised tool user-Hooded crows (Corvus cornix). Crows were exposed to pre-made template objects, varying first in colour and

SUBMITTER: Smirnova AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11058793 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature