Long-term memory in wild falcons

Katie J Harrington; Alice M. I. Auersperg; Laura Biondi; Megan L. Lambert

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.012

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Title (eng)

Long-term memory in wild falcons

Author

Katie J Harrington

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Alice M. I. Auersperg

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Laura Biondi

Megan L. Lambert

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Abstract (eng)

Long-term memory - information retention over long timescales - can allow animals to retain foraging skills and efficiently respond to seasonally available resources and changing environments1. Most long-term memory research is with captive species, focusing on spatial, individual or object recognition, with less known about wild species and the retention of motor task abilities, as in the case of complex foraging skills2,3. We have examined whether wild striated caracaras (Phalcoboenus australis), recently shown to rapidly and flexibly innovate with an eight-task puzzle box4, retain task memories one year later. We found that, despite no reinforcement, caracaras repeated motor techniques that led to their most recent success on tasks the year prior, solving nearly twice as fast as a naïve control group and four times faster than when naïve. Our results suggest long-term memory may be important for non-migratory opportunistic generalists, particularly in remote island environments with seasonally available resources, and further highlight how striated caracaras are promising candidates for avian cognitive studies.

Keywords (eng)

Memory, Long-TermphysiologyAnimalsFalconiformes PhysiologyMaleFemale

Type (eng)

journal article

Language

[eng]

Persistent identifier

https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:4258

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.012

Is in series

Title (eng)