The Cognitive Investigation Of Foraging Azure-winged Magpies(Cyanopica Cyanus)

Foraging is the basic condition for survival,including a series of processes such as searching,hunting,feeding,and caching food.In this series of processes,animals will show corresponding behaviors and cognitive ability.Combined with the characteristics of foraging,corresponding experiments can be designed to explore the cognitive ability of animals.For example,Professor Clayton of the Comparative Cognitive Laboratory of the University of Cambridge used the unique cache food behavior of many Corvidae to explore the cognitive abilities such as empathy and episodic memory.In this article,we explored the lateralization,motivation,and causal cognition of Azure-winged magpies in foraging by setting different food types and the difficulty of foraging.In the first content,we mainly explored whether Azure-winged magpies have lateralization during foraging,and whether the lateralization will be affected by the difficulty of foraging.This study included two experiments:Experiment 1 provided two identical food boxes placed in parallel,and puts the same food in to explore whether Azure-winged magpies have lateral phenomenon in foraging;Experiment 2provided two food boxes(the same type of food)with the same appearance but one lid weighted,which placed in parallel,to explore whether the difficulty in foraging will correct the lateralization of Azure-winged magpies.The three Azure-winged magpies participating in the experiment showed different results:Joyce(random naming),the same below showed to the left in foraging(P=0.003);Alina showed to the right in foraging(P=0.006);Matt showed no obvious lateralization in foraging(P=0.104).The results of experiment 2 showed that when the weight of the lid of the food box reached a certain value(Joyce 10.0g,Alina 20.0g,Matt 5.0g),all the subjects adjusted their previous behavior characteristics(lateral and non-lateral)that in experiment 1.The results of this study are consistent with the optimal foraging theory that animals have certain strategies during foraging in order to maximize benefits with minimum cost.In the second content,we explored the influence of food types in foraging of Azure-winged magpies.In other words,we intend to explore whether preferred food will greatly increase Azure-winged magpies'motivation to overcome difficulties.This study included two experiments:Experiment 1 provided two food boxes with the same appearance but one lid weighted,which placed in parallel(different types of food,the food box with weighted lid was food that preferred by Azure-winged magpies);Experiment 2 provided a separate food box with a sustainable weight lid to explore the best efforts that Azure-winged magpies can make to obtain their preferred food(mealworm).The results of experiment 1 showed that all Azure-winged magpies could tolerate 20.0g weight when eating preferred food;Azure-winged magpies showed stronger weight bearing capacity in the face of mealworm than in ordinary diet,in which Joyce's ability to bear weight increased by 23.60%,Alina is 51.81%and Matt is15.71%.The strength of motivation has a great influence on animal behavior decision-making.Azure-winged magpies have stronger tolerance in the face of mealworm,indicating that the stimulation of external environment plays a guiding role in animal behavior decision-making.Those can be applied to animal welfare,animal cognitive experiments and the reward mechanism of human society.In the third content,the improved Aesop's fable paradigm—a series of experiments originally used to test whether some animals understand the causality associated with water replacement—was used to explore the cognitive ability of Azure-winged magpies.This study consists of six experiments:water-filled tubes vs.sand-filled tubes,heavy objects vs.light objects,solid objects vs.hollow objects,wide tube vs.narrow tube with same water level,tubes with high water level vs.tubes with low water level(same diameters),and U-shaped tubes.The results of the first five experiments show that Azure-winged magpies preferred water-filled tubes(P_trial20=0.04),and preferred to use heavy objects(P_trial20=0.04),solid objects(P_trial20=0.04);but they do not notice the diameter(P_trial20=0.35)and water level(P_trial20=0.41)of the tubes.In the sixth experiment,they also failed the counterintuitive U-tube task(P_trial20=0.25).Our results demonstrated that Azure-winged magpies have a certain cognitive ability but not an understanding of causality,a characteristic comparable to that of other corvids.Moreover,Azure-winged magpies exhibited the ability of training transfer and analogical problem solving from the perspective of cognitive psychology.We believe that object bias has little effect on Azure-winged magpies in this study.We can conclude that the Azure-winged magpies partially completed the tasks by trial-and-error learning.The first two contents of this study explored the lateralization and motivation of Azure-winged magpie in foraging behavior for the first time.The foraging of all individuals was consistent with the prediction of optimal foraging theory.In the third part,the Azure-winged magpie performs well in Aesop's fable paradigm like other Corvidae birds.The performance of the Azure-winged magpie in this study not only establishes a strong foundation for us to further understand the behavior and cognitive ability of the Azure-winged magpie,but also expands the cognitive scope of Chinese Corvidae birds.At the same time,the skills of Azure-winged magpies'foraging by stone-throwing also provide a new research method for the establishment of a unique cognitive research system of Corvidae birds.