Observatory: Study Finds Eurasian Jays Keep Quiet When Hiding Food

The Eurasian jay, a member of the crow family, hides acorns and other food in several thousand locations every year, to be retrieved when food is scarce.

But pilfering by other birds is common, so the jays have developed a strategy, a new study reports: they minimize the noise they make while hiding, or ?caching,? their food supplies.

In an experiment, the researchers watched jays caching in three different settings: when birds were alone; when the birds could hear a potential pilferer but not see it; and when they were in plain sight of the thief.

When the pilferer could only listen to caching, the jays avoided noisy gravel and instead used sand and quiet locations when hiding their provisions. By contrast, when birds were alone or with a potential pilferer that could see and hear the jay, the birds were not as diligent about staying quiet.

?This suggests that these birds have sophisticated cognitive abilities,? said an author of the study, Rachael C. Shaw, a comparative psychologist at the University of Cambridge. ?They are very socially aware.?

Ms. Shaw, whose findings are in the current issue of The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also found that potential thieves ?would suppress vocalizing? when observing jays caching.

Other crows engage in caching, but this is the first study to show that a member of the crow family vocalizes less when spying on another bird hiding food.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/science/study-finds-eurasian-jays-keep-quiet-when-hiding-food.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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