Species don't have to be any smarter
>than they need to be for survival so my question is: why have some species
>evolved smarts that they use for play, building destructive devices, or
>figuring out that there might be a hole in a fence? Are some bird
>*families* smarter than others: e.g., corvids vs phasianids ?
>
>Herb Curl

You said it, Herb. If intelligence doesn't play a particularly large role
in the life of an animal, why be smart? A small bird can do just fine on
its instincts for basic foraging and predator avoidance, and it can easily
learn what particular prey and predators can be found where. It doesn't
need to be able to outthink them.

I've always thought corvids were "smart" because of strong selection on
their memory abilities because they cache their food. For the same reason,
you'd think chickadees and nuthatches might be fairly smart, but a
black-capped chickadee also played the same game with the trap that I
mentioned for the starlings, briefly moving around the back side. Small
sample size, though--maybe a single differently abled chickadee.

Look at the relative size of a crow head and a grouse head, and it tells
you there's got to be some difference in brain power.

Behavioral psychologists often compared the "intelligence" of animals by
seeing how well they were able to find their way through a maze. A little
basic biology finally entered the picture, and they realized that animals
such as rats that basically live in mazelike environments would of course
do a better job of navigating through one.

Winter and Rock wrens commonly enter holes to forage, and it would be
interesting to see how one of them does in finding the entrance to
something.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416