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  New Caledonian crows infer the weight of objects from observing their movements in a breeze

Jelbert, S. A., Miller, R., Schiestl, M., Boeckle, M., Cheke, L. G., Gray, R. D., et al. (2019). New Caledonian crows infer the weight of objects from observing their movements in a breeze. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 286(1894): 20182332. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.2332.

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Jelbert_New_ProcB_2019.pdf (Publisher version), 650KB
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Jelbert_New_ProcB_2019.pdf
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2019
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& 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

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 Creators:
Jelbert, Sarah A., Author
Miller, Rachael, Author
Schiestl, Martina1, Author           
Boeckle, Markus, Author
Cheke, Lucy G., Author
Gray, Russell D.1, Author           
Taylor, Alex H., Author
Clayton, Nicola S., Author
Affiliations:
1Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Max Planck Society, ou_2074311              

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 Abstract: Humans use a variety of cues to infer an object's weight, including how easily objects can be moved. For example, if we observe an object being blown down the street by the wind, we can infer that it is light. Here, we tested whether New Caledonian crows make this type of inference. After training that only one type of object (either light or heavy) was rewarded when dropped into a food dispenser, birds observed pairs of novel objects (one light and one heavy) suspended from strings in front of an electric fan. The fan was either on—creating a breeze which buffeted the light, but not the heavy, object—or off, leaving both objects stationary. In subsequent test trials, birds could drop one, or both, of the novel objects into the food dispenser. Despite having no opportunity to handle these objects prior to testing, birds touched the correct object (light or heavy) first in 73% of experimental trials, and were at chance in control trials. Our results suggest that birds used pre-existing knowledge about the behaviour exhibited by differently weighted objects in the wind to infer their weight, using this information to guide their choices.

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Language(s): eng - English
 Dates: 2019-01-092019-01
 Publication Status: Issued
 Pages: 8
 Publishing info: -
 Table of Contents: -
 Rev. Type: Peer
 Identifiers: Other: shh1150
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.2332
 Degree: -

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Title: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Source Genre: Journal
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Publ. Info: London : Royal Society
Pages: - Volume / Issue: 286 (1894) Sequence Number: 20182332 Start / End Page: - Identifier: ISSN: 0962-8452
CoNE: https://pure.mpg.de/cone/journals/resource/110975500577295_2