Abstract
Food-storing birds use spatial memory to find previously cached food items. Throughout winter, pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) rely heavily on cached pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) seeds. Because of a recent severe drought, pinyon pine trees had not produced a significant seed crop for several years. Therefore, 1- and 2-yr-old birds never had the opportunity to cache and recover seeds and birds 4 or more years of age had not recovered seeds in 3 yr. This study examined whether natural but extreme variability in experience might result in differences in abstract spatial memory ability during a non-cache recovery test of spatial memory. Three groups of jays were tested for spatial memory ability in an open room analog of the radial arm maze. Two of the groups were 8 mo old: young/minimally experienced birds which had 2 mo of experience in the wild, while young/experienced birds had 5 mo of experience in their natural habitat. The third group, adult, consisted of birds more than 3 yr old, with at least 3 yr of experience in their natural habitat. This was the only group with experience caching pine seeds. All three groups performed equally and well above chance. This suggests that spatial memory is fully developed by 8 mo of age and is not affected by extensive experience in the wild.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1202-1208 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Ethology |
| Volume | 112 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2006 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Animal Science and Zoology
Cite this
Does seed-caching experience affect spatial memory performance by pinyon jays? / Stafford, B. Lucas; Balda, Russell P.; Kamil, Alan C.
In: Ethology, Vol. 112, No. 12, 01.12.2006, p. 1202-1208.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Does seed-caching experience affect spatial memory performance by pinyon jays?
AU - Stafford, B. Lucas
AU - Balda, Russell P.
AU - Kamil, Alan C.
PY - 2006/12/1
Y1 - 2006/12/1
N2 - Food-storing birds use spatial memory to find previously cached food items. Throughout winter, pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) rely heavily on cached pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) seeds. Because of a recent severe drought, pinyon pine trees had not produced a significant seed crop for several years. Therefore, 1- and 2-yr-old birds never had the opportunity to cache and recover seeds and birds 4 or more years of age had not recovered seeds in 3 yr. This study examined whether natural but extreme variability in experience might result in differences in abstract spatial memory ability during a non-cache recovery test of spatial memory. Three groups of jays were tested for spatial memory ability in an open room analog of the radial arm maze. Two of the groups were 8 mo old: young/minimally experienced birds which had 2 mo of experience in the wild, while young/experienced birds had 5 mo of experience in their natural habitat. The third group, adult, consisted of birds more than 3 yr old, with at least 3 yr of experience in their natural habitat. This was the only group with experience caching pine seeds. All three groups performed equally and well above chance. This suggests that spatial memory is fully developed by 8 mo of age and is not affected by extensive experience in the wild.
AB - Food-storing birds use spatial memory to find previously cached food items. Throughout winter, pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) rely heavily on cached pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) seeds. Because of a recent severe drought, pinyon pine trees had not produced a significant seed crop for several years. Therefore, 1- and 2-yr-old birds never had the opportunity to cache and recover seeds and birds 4 or more years of age had not recovered seeds in 3 yr. This study examined whether natural but extreme variability in experience might result in differences in abstract spatial memory ability during a non-cache recovery test of spatial memory. Three groups of jays were tested for spatial memory ability in an open room analog of the radial arm maze. Two of the groups were 8 mo old: young/minimally experienced birds which had 2 mo of experience in the wild, while young/experienced birds had 5 mo of experience in their natural habitat. The third group, adult, consisted of birds more than 3 yr old, with at least 3 yr of experience in their natural habitat. This was the only group with experience caching pine seeds. All three groups performed equally and well above chance. This suggests that spatial memory is fully developed by 8 mo of age and is not affected by extensive experience in the wild.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33751233525&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01279.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01279.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33751233525
VL - 112
SP - 1202
EP - 1208
JO - Ethology
JF - Ethology
SN - 0179-1613
IS - 12
ER -