title: Gaze direction - a cue for hidden food in rooks (Corvus frugilegus)?
abstract: Other individual's head- and eye-directions can be used as social cues indicating the presence of important events. Among birds, ravens and rooks have been shown to co-orient with conspecifics and with humans by following their gaze direction into distant space and behind visual screens. Both species use screens to cache food in private; also, it had been suggested that they may rely on gaze cues to detect hidden food. However, in an object-choice task, ravens failed to do so, and their competitive lifestyle may have prevented them from relying on these cues. Here we tested closely related and cooperative rooks. Food was hidden in one of two cups and the experimenter gazed at the baited cup. In a second experiment, we aimed to increase the birds' motivation to choose correctly by increasing the investment needed to obtain the reward. To do so, the birds had to pull on a string to obtain the cup. Here, the birds as a group tended to rely on gaze cues. In addition, individual birds quickly learned to use the cue in both experiments. Although rooks may not use gaze cues to find hidden food spontaneously, they may quickly learn to do so.
authors.affiliation: Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle, Fischerau 11, 4645 Gruenau im Almtal, Austria. judith.schmidt@gmx.at
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheid
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kotrschal
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bugnyar
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schloegl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D046368:Crows / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012201:Reward; D013045:Species Specificity