Innovative problem solving by wild falcons

Innovation (i.e., a new solution to a familiar problem, or applying an existing behavior to a novel problem) plays a fundamental role in species’ ecology and evolution. It can be a useful measure for cross-group comparisons of behavioral and cognitive flexibility and a proxy for general intelligence. Among birds, experimental studies of innovation (and cognition more generally) are largely from captive corvids and parrots, though we lack serious models for avian technical intelligence outside these taxa. Striated caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis) are Falconiformes, sister clade to parrots and passerines, and those endemic to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) show curiosity and neophilia similar to notoriously neophilic kea parrots, and face similar socio-ecological pressures to corvids and parrots. We tested wild striated caracaras as a new avian model for technical cognition and innovation using a field-applicable 8-task comparative paradigm. The setup allowed us to assess behavior, rate, and flexibility of problem solving over repeated exposure in a natural setting. Like other generalist species with low neophobia, we predicted caracaras to demonstrate a haptic approach to solving tasks, flexibly switching to new, unsolved problems and improving performance over time. Striated caracaras performed comparable to tool-using parrots, nearly reaching ceiling levels of innovation in few trials, repeatedly and flexibly solving tasks and rapidly learning. We attribute our findings to the birds’ ecology, including geographic restriction, resource unpredictability and opportunistic generalism, and encourage future work investigating their cognitive abilities in the wild.

创新（Innovation），即针对熟悉问题的全新解决方案，或是将既有行为应用于全新问题的过程，在物种的生态学与进化进程中发挥着基础性作用。其可作为行为与认知灵活性跨类群比较的有效指标，同时也是通用智能的替代衡量标准。在鸟类研究领域，有关创新（及更广泛的认知能力）的实验研究大多集中于笼养鸦科（Corvidae）与鹦鹉类群，但目前学界在上述类群之外仍缺乏严谨的鸟类技术智能研究模型。条纹卡拉鹰（Striated caracaras，*Phalcoboenus australis*）属于隼形目（Falconiformes），是鹦鹉与雀形类（Passerines）的姊妹演化支；栖息于福克兰群岛（马尔维纳斯群岛）的特有种群展现出与以喜新特性闻名的啄羊鹦鹉（kea parrots）相似的好奇心与新物偏好，且面临与鸦科、鹦鹉类相似的社会生态学压力。本研究采用可实地应用的8任务比较范式，将野生条纹卡拉鹰作为技术认知与创新研究的新型鸟类模型开展实验。该实验设置使得我们能够在自然环境中，通过反复暴露测试，评估受试个体的问题解决行为、速率与灵活性。与其他新物恐惧程度较低的广食性物种一致，我们预测卡拉鹰会通过触觉探索的方式完成任务，并能灵活切换至全新的未解决问题，且随实验推进逐步提升任务表现。实验结果显示，条纹卡拉鹰的任务表现可与使用工具的鹦鹉类相媲美，在少量试次中便几乎达到创新能力的天花板水平，能够反复且灵活地完成任务，并实现快速学习。我们将本研究的实验结果归因于该鸟类的生态学特征，包括地理隔离、资源不可预测性与机会主义广食性，并呼吁未来开展更多针对野生个体认知能力的相关研究。