21 February 2007

hiding food = plans for future meals


Why is this sort of thing always such a surprise to human reseachers? Isn't it obvious that if somebody - human or non - hides something that means they have a plan to do something with it later?

Jays travel in time to be sure of breakfast
New Scientist, 21 February 2007

We're all time travellers, in the sense that we can recall memories and plan for the future. Mental time travel is considered by many to be unique to humans; animals were assumed to be "stuck in time", but now that idea has been challenged... by a bird.

Western scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica) store food in caches, but as with other provisioning animals, such as squirrels, it is difficult to tell whether they do so because they are planning for the future or because the are behaving instinctively, as they do when building a nest or migrating. Also they could simply be hungry.

To see if they had a sense of the future, Nicola Clayton and colleagues at the University of Cambridge allowed eight jays to feed during the day for six days, except in the morning, when they were allowed to enter either a compartment where they got breakfast or one where they didn't. On the evening of day 7 the jays were unexpectedly given extra food, and the researchers found they stashed the surplus in the compartment where they had learned they would not get breakfast. This suggests that they do plan for the future - in this case a future without breakfast (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature05575).

"If I thought I'd end up in a grotty motel with no breakfast, I'd take provisions with me," says Clayton.

From issue 2592 of New Scientist magazine, 21 February 2007, page 18

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