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December 23, 2011
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Pigeons found to measure up in numbers game
Dec. 23, 2011
Courtesy of Science
and World
Science staff
Pigeons rival macaque monkeys in their ability to follow certain numerical rules, according to a new report. Pigeons sorted pictures
representing numbers on computer screens such as the above. (Image
courtesy Damian Scarf)
Understanding abstract concepts like numerical rules is an ability humans generally like to claim for themselves or to our closest evolutionary relatives. But scientists say it’s becoming increasingly clear that this view underestimates the abilities of many other
animals. Birds in particular have been found to share a number of abilities once thought unique to humans, apes and monkeys—including tool creation, tool use and memory for specific events.
E. M. Brannon of Columbia University and colleagues showed in a 1998 paper published in the research journal
Science that macaques could put images in order based on the number of objects pictured in each image.
The new study put pigeons through the same test.
Damian Scarf of the University of Otago in New Zealand and colleagues found that pigeons share the monkeys’ ability, performing just as well. The findings raise the interesting question of whether this numerical competence arose in an ancestor shared by birds and primates, or whether it evolved independently in the two lineages, the researchers say.
“Over the past two decades the intellectual status of birds has risen markedly,” they wrote, reporting their findings in the Dec. 23 issue of
Science. The new findings suggest that pigeons are “well perched” to help reveal the evolutionary pressures “and neural structures required for abstract numerical cognition,” they added.
In another recent study on bird smarts, a group including Alex H. Taylor of
the University of Auckland, N.Z. found that New Caledonian crows could figure
out how to raise a liquid in a container by dropping stones in. That
study was published Dec. 14 online in the journal PLoS One. Further
tests showed the crows' performances weren’t based on simple learning—so
they evidently grasped the mechanics behind the stone trick, Taylor and
colleagues added.
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Pigeons rival macaque monkeys in their ability to follow certain numerical rules, according to a new report. Understanding abstract concepts like numerical rules is an ability humans generally like to claim for themselves or to our closest evolutionary relatives. But scientists say it’s becoming increasingly clear that this view underestimates the abilities of many other lineages. Birds in particular have been found to share a number of abilities once thought unique to humans, apes and monkeys—including tool creation, tool use and memory for specific events. Almost fifteen years ago, researchers showed in a paper published in the research journal Science that macaques could put images in order based on the number of objects pictured in each image. The new study put pigeons through the same test. Damian Scarf of the University of Otago in New Zealand and colleagues found that pigeons share the monkeys’ ability, performing just as well. The findings raise the interesting question of whether this numerical competence arose in an ancestor shared by birds and primates, or whether it evolved independently in the two lineages, the researchers say. “Over the past two decades the intellectual status of birds has risen markedly,” they wrote, reporting their findings in the Dec. 23 issue of Science. The new findings suggest that pigeons are “well perched” to help reveal the evolutionary pressures “and neural structures required for abstract numerical cognition,” they added.