International
Canadian researchers have found evidence for complex problem-solving abilities in waterbirds for the first time. Four wild populations of ring-billed gulls were tested to see if nesting parents could solve a puzzle involving a food reward attached to a piece of string, with a quarter of the birds successfully acquiring a piece of sausage at least once. While the cognitive abilities of parrots and perching birds are well-researched, waterbirds like the ring-billed gull have been largely ignored by animal behaviour scientists, partly due to their smaller brains relative to body size. Researchers suggest that success in the “string-pull test” could tell us whether a species is innovative enough to survive climate change and habitat destruction in the near future.
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Not so gull-ible - Nothing will get between a gull and your chips. Researchers tested the cognitive skills of wild ring-billed gulls with a string they could pull to draw food from a box. A quarter of birds solved the test within three attempts, one-in-five got it first time. This is the first example of a waterbird species solving the string-pull cognitive test, a proxy to understand how species can adapt to environmental challenges.
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