Tool use by wild New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides at natural foraging sites.
نویسندگان
چکیده
New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides use tools made from sticks or leaf stems to 'fish' woodboring beetle larvae from their burrows in decaying wood. Previous research on this behaviour has been confined to baited sites, leaving its ecological context and significance virtually unexplored. To obtain detailed observations of natural, undisturbed tool use, we deployed motion-triggered video cameras at seven larva-fishing sites. From 1797 camera hours of surveillance over 111 days, we recorded 317 site visits by at least 14 individual crows. Tool use was observed during 150 site visits. Our video footage revealed notable variation in foraging success among identifiable crows. Two nutritionally independent, immature crows spent considerable time using tools, but were much less successful than local adults, highlighting the potential role of individual and social learning in the acquisition of tool-use proficiency. During systematic surveys of larva-fishing sites, we collected 193 tools that crows had left inserted in larva burrows. Comparing these tools with the holes in which they were found, and with raw materials available around logs, provides evidence for tool selectivity by New Caledonian crows under natural conditions. Taken together, these two complementary lines of investigation provide, to our knowledge, the first quantitative description of larva fishing by wild crows in its full ecological context.
منابع مشابه
On the evolutionary and ontogenetic origins of tool-oriented behaviour in New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides).
New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are prolific tool users in captivity and in the wild, and have an inherited predisposition to express tool-oriented behaviours. To further understand the evolution and development of tool use, we compared the development of object manipulation in New Caledonian crows and common ravens (Corvus corax), which do not routinely use tools. We found striking ...
متن کاملVideo cameras on wild birds.
New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are renowned for using tools for extractive foraging, but the ecological context of this unusual behavior is largely unknown. We developed miniaturized, animal-borne video cameras to record the undisturbed behavior and foraging ecology of wild, free-ranging crows. Our video recordings enabled an estimate of the species' natural foraging efficiency and ...
متن کاملLateralization of tool use in New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides).
We studied laterality of tool use in 10 captive New Caledonian (NC) crows (Corvus moneduloides). All subjects showed near-exclusive individual laterality, but there was no overall bias in either direction (five were left-lateralized and five were right-lateralized). This is consistent with results in non-human primates, which show strong individual lateralization for tool use (but not for other...
متن کاملLateralized tool use in wild New Caledonian crows
Many vertebrate species exhibit sensory and motor asymmetries. Laterality studies of tool use have focused on primates, where hemispheric asymmetries, manifested behaviourally in hand preferences, are thought to be associated with complex motor tasks. Here we report strong individual lateralization for tool use in birds. New Caledonian crows, Corvus moneduloides, hold stick tools with their bil...
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings. Biological sciences
دوره 277 1686 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2010