Three-dimensional spatial learning in hummingbirds

Flores-Abreu, I. Nuri; Hurly, T. Andrew; Healy, Susan D.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.12.019

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Vertical information is known to be an important component of three-dimensional navigation for a range of species, including honeybees [ 14 ], hummingbirds [ 15 ] and fishes [ 16 ]. During navigation tasks, individual Astyanax mexicanus (the fish species used in the present study) were able to learn vertical information at the same rate [ 16 ] and used it with a similar accuracy [ 17 ] as horizontal information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validating two-dimensional leadership models on three-dimensionally structured fish schools

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Identifying leader–follower interactions is crucial for understanding how a group decides where or when to move, and how this information is transferred between members. Although many animal groups have a three-dimensional structure, previous studies investigating leader–follower interactions have often ignored vertical information. This raises the question of whether commonly used two-dimensional leader–follower analyses can be used justifiably on groups that interact in three dimensions. To address this, we quantified the individual movements of banded tetra fish (Astyanax mexicanus) within shoals by computing the three-dimensional trajectories of all individuals using a stereo-camera technique. We used these data firstly to identify and compare leader–follower interactions in two and three dimensions, and secondly to analyse leadership with respect to an individual's spatial position in three dimensions. We show that for 95% of all pairwise interactions leadership identified through two-dimensional analysis matches that identified through three-dimensional analysis, and we reveal that fish attend to the same shoalmates for vertical information as they do for horizontal information. Our results therefore highlight that three-dimensional analyses are not always required to identify leader–follower relationships in species that move freely in three dimensions. We discuss our results in terms of the importance of taking species' sensory capacities into account when studying interaction networks within groups.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validating two-dimensional leadership models on three-dimensionally structured fish schools

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As such, laboratory‐based studies with captive‐bred animals often demonstrate what an animal can do, rather than what it actually does in its natural environment. To gain an ecologically relevant measure of cognitive performance (Pritchard, Hurly, Tello‐Ramos, & Healy, ), researchers have thus taken methods from the psychology laboratory into the field (Morand‐Ferron, Cole, & Quinn, ), addressing topics such as spatial memory in chickadees and hummingbirds (Croston et al., ; Flores‐Abreu, Hurly, & Healy, ), associative learning in great tits (Morand‐Ferron et al., ) and tool use in chimpanzees (Biro et al., ). However, despite progress in field‐based cognitive ecology of vertebrate systems, invertebrate cognition is still largely tested in laboratory‐reared animals under laboratory conditions (but see Collett, Chittka, & Collett, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel protocol for studying bee cognition in the wild

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract1. Understanding how animals perceive, learn and remember stimuli is critical for understanding both how cognition is shaped by natural selection, and how ecological factors impact behaviour. However, the majority of studies on cognition involve captive animals in laboratory settings. While controlled settings are required to accurately measure aspects of cognition, they may not yield realistic estimates of learning performance in natural environments. Wild bees offer a useful system in which to study cognitive ecology and comparative cognition more broadly: they encompass around 20,000 species globally, varying in characteristics such as lifehistory strategy, degree of sociality and dietary specialization. Yet, the limited number of protocols currently available for studying insect cognition has restricted research to a few commercially available bee species, in almost exclusively laboratory settings. We present a protocol (Free-Moving Proboscis Extension Response [FMPER]) tomeasure wild bees' colour preferences, learning performance and memory.3. We first used laboratory-reared bumblebees Bombus impatiens to establish that FMPER yielded results consistent with learning theory. We then successfully tested wild honeybees Apis mellifera in the laboratory and Bombus vosnesenskii at field sites. Free-Moving Proboscis ExtensionResponse is straightforward to implement, is low cost, and may be readily adapted to other flower-visiting insects. We believe it will be useful to a broad range of evolutionary biologists, behavioural ecologists and pollination ecologists interested in measuring cognitive performance in the wild and across a broader range of species.

show abstract

“…That performance depends on the way in which the question is asked is demonstrated yet again because hummingbirds apparently encode vertical information less accurately than horizontal information when the locations to be discriminated differ only in their vertical component: when flowers were presented on a vertical pole (Figure 7), birds found it difficult to learn which one of five flowers was rewarded but when the flowers were presented along a diagonal pole, the birds were relatively quick to learn which was the rewarded flower (Flores Abreu, Hurly, & Healy, 2013). Here it appears that the addition of a horizontal component to the flower's location may have facilitated the learning of its vertical location.…”

Section: Figure 3 Photographs Showing the Elevated Feeder (To Deter mentioning

confidence: 99%

What hummingbirds can tell us about cognition in the wild

Healy¹,

Hurly²

2013

CCBR

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Here we review around 20 years of experimental data that we have collected during tests of cognitive abilities of free-living, wild rufous hummingbirds Selasphorus rufus at their breeding grounds in southwestern Alberta. Because these birds are readily trained to feed from artificial flowers they have proved a useful system for testing cognitive abilities of an animal outside the box wherein animal cognitive abilities are so often tested in the laboratory. And, although these data all come from a single species in a single location, the long-term aim of this work is to make a contribution to our understanding of the evolution of cognitive abilities, by examining the relationship between the ecological demands these birds face and their cognitive abilities. Testing predictions based on our knowledge of their ecology we have found that, while these birds aggressively defend a territory and display to females during the time we train and test them, they can learn and remember the locations of rewarded flowers, what those flowers look like, and when they are likely to contain food. Small-brained though they may be, these 3g hummingbirds appear to have cognitive capabilities that are not only well matched to their ecological demands, they are in at least some instances better (more capacious) than those of animals tested in the laboratory.

show abstract

Three-dimensional spatial learning in hummingbirds

Cited by 14 publications

References 15 publications

Validating two-dimensional leadership models on three-dimensionally structured fish schools

Validating two-dimensional leadership models on three-dimensionally structured fish schools

A novel protocol for studying bee cognition in the wild

What hummingbirds can tell us about cognition in the wild

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About