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SUMMARY:“Cognition in nest construction in birds?” - Felicity Muth (Sc
 hool of Biology\, University of St Andrews)
DTSTART:20120516T113000Z
DTEND:20120516T123000Z
UID:TALK37920@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Diane Pearce
DESCRIPTION:Nest building is widespread across bird species. Although it h
 as generally been assumed to be unaffected by learning\, this has rarely b
 een tested. Here I present experiments investigating what role learning ma
 y play in nest building behaviour in zebra finches\, in both adults and yo
 ung birds. I also present results from an experiment addressing whether bi
 rds were able to select material appropriate for a nest building 'task'\, 
 using a similar design to that used in some experiments on tool-use in ani
 mals. Taken together\, my results show evidence for a role of cognition in
  nest building: experience changes zebra finches’ preferences for nest m
 aterials and they are also able to select materials appropriate to the con
 ditions under which they are building.  There appears to be at least some 
 similarity between these results and the data on tool use.
LOCATION:Library\, Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour\, Madingley
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