Kevin Burns

Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington

How smart are birdbrains? Number sense in the New Zealand robin

This is joint work with Simon Hunt and Jason Low, both VUW

Knowledge of mathematics is thought to distinguish humans from other animals. However, the potential for wild animals to use number discriminations to solve ecological problems is poorly resolved. We conducted a series of experiments to test whether a food-hoarding songbird, the New Zealand robin Petrocia australis, could discriminate between cache sites containing different numbers of prey. We found that robins utilize a highly sophisticated number sense to retrieve and pilfer stored food, thus providing a critical link in our understanding of the adaptive significance of numerical competency in untrained wild animals.