Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Avenida Professor Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil.
Centro de Triagem de Animais Silvestres Tangara, Estrada da Mumbeca (PE-16) km 8, Guabiraba, Recife, PE, 52490-000, Brazil.
Anim Cogn. 2020 May;23(3):455-464. doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01347-6. Epub 2020 Feb 7.
Birds can solve many cognitive tasks that were previously only solved by primates, implying that their cognitive ability is far greater than expected. Here, we investigated the ability of blue-fronted amazon parrots in solving the pebble-and-seed and the multi-access-box paradigms, two ecologically relevant cognitive tasks varying in complexity and required skills to solve. We also investigated whether laterality, sex and housing conditions influenced problem-solving capacity. We tested 14 adults kept in captivity and 27 reintroduced adults. Here, we present evidence of laterality for the species, showing right-footed, left-footed and ambidextrous individuals. Left-footed animals were more successful than the right-footed animals in the pebble-and-seed test. There was no sex difference in the problem-solving capacity of the blue-fronted amazon parrots for both pebble-and-seed and multi-access-box paradigms. Eleven captive animals were successful in at least one of the four multiple-access-box possible solutions. Four reintroduced individuals were successful in at least one of the multiple-access-box possible solutions. Only two captive animals and one reintroduced animal succeeded to solve more than one of the four multiple-access-box solutions. The average success rate of the pebble-and-seed test was 88.16% ex situ and 86.58% in situ, with individual variation in test-solving ability. Our study shows that unlike laterality, sex was not determinant in blue-fronted amazon parrots' problem-solving ability. The blue-fronted amazon parrots have the visual discrimination skills needed for the pebble-and-seed task solution, and the motor skills for beak-foot coordination and potentially understanding of complex spatial relationships required for the string-pulling task, the multi-access-box solution achieved by most of the animals. Our results increased the knowledge of the cognitive ability of parrots, a group which lacked extensive cognition data.
鸟类可以解决许多以前只有灵长类动物才能解决的认知任务，这表明它们的认知能力远远超出预期。在这里，我们研究了蓝额亚马逊鹦鹉解决卵石和种子以及多访问盒两种生态相关认知任务的能力，这两种任务的复杂性和解决所需的技能各不相同。我们还研究了偏侧性、性别和住房条件是否影响解决问题的能力。我们测试了 14 只圈养的成年鸟和 27 只重新引入的成年鸟。在这里，我们为该物种提供了偏侧性的证据，显示了右足、左足和左右开弓的个体。在卵石和种子测试中，左足动物比右足动物更成功。在卵石和种子以及多访问盒两种范式中，蓝额亚马逊鹦鹉的解决问题能力没有性别差异。在四个多访问盒的可能解决方案中，有 11 只圈养动物至少成功了一个。在四个多访问盒的可能解决方案中，有 4 只重新引入的个体至少成功了一个。只有两只圈养动物和一只重新引入的动物成功地解决了四个多访问盒解决方案中的一个以上。卵石和种子测试的平均成功率为 88.16%在体外和 86.58%在体内，个体在测试解决能力上存在差异。我们的研究表明，与偏侧性不同，性别不是蓝额亚马逊鹦鹉解决问题能力的决定因素。蓝额亚马逊鹦鹉具有解决卵石和种子任务所需的视觉辨别技能，以及用于喙足协调的运动技能，并且可能理解了拉绳任务（大多数动物都达到了多访问盒的解决方案）所需的复杂空间关系。我们的结果增加了对鹦鹉认知能力的了解，鹦鹉这一类群缺乏广泛的认知数据。
