| Autor: |
Danel S; Laboratory for the Study of Cognitive Mechanisms, University of Lyon, 69500, Bron Rhône-Alpes, France. samara.danel@gmail.com.; Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, 82319, Seewiesen, Germany. samara.danel@gmail.com., Chiffard-Carricaburu J; CEFE, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, EPHE, IRD, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France.; Office Français de la Biodiversité, Impasse de la Chapelle, 31800, Villeneuve-De-Rivière, France., Bonadonna F; CEFE, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, EPHE, IRD, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France., Nesterova AP; CEFE, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, EPHE, IRD, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France.; PRC, CNRS, INRAE, Université de Tours, UMR 7247, 37380, Nouzilly, France.; FaunaStats, 16 avenue de l'Europe, Immeuble SXB1, 67300, Schiltigheim, France. |
| Abstrakt: |
Inferential reasoning by exclusion allows responding adaptively to various environmental stimuli when confronted with inconsistent or partial information. In the experimental context, this mechanism involves selecting correctly between an empty option and a potentially rewarded one. Recently, the increasing reports of this capacity in phylogenetically distant species have led to the assumption that reasoning by exclusion is the result of convergent evolution. Within one largely unstudied avian order, i.e. the Charadriiformes, brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp lonnbergi) are highly flexible and opportunistic predators. Behavioural flexibility, along with specific aspects of skuas' feeding ecology, may act as influencing factors in their ability to show exclusion performance. Our study aims to test whether skuas are able to choose by exclusion in a visual two-way object-choice task. Twenty-six wild birds were presented with two opaque cups, one covering a food reward. Three conditions were used: 'full information' (showing the content of both cups), 'exclusion' (showing the content of the empty cup), and 'control' (not showing any content). Skuas preferentially selected the rewarded cup in the full information and exclusion condition. The use of olfactory cues was excluded by results in the control condition. Our study opens new field investigations for testing further the cognition of this predatory seabird. |
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