Action imitation in birds

Abstract

Action imitation, once thought to be a behavior almost exclusively limited to humans and the great apes, surprisingly also has been found in a number of bird species. Because imitation has been viewed by some psychologists as a form of intelligent behavior, there has been interest in how it is distributed among animal species. Although the mechanisms responsible for action imitation are not clear, we are now at least beginning to understand the conditions under which it occurs. In this article, I try to identify and differentiate the various forms of socially influenced behavior (species-typical social reactions, social effects on motivation, social effects on perception, socially influenced learning, and action imitation) and explain why it is important to differentiate imitation from other forms of social influence. I also examine some of the variables that appear to be involved in the occurrence of imitation. Finally, I speculate about why a number of bird species, but few mammal species, appear to imitate.

How do apes ape?

“…Of two studies in the refereed literature allowed to include true imitation in their titles, one concerned marmosets (Voelkl & Huber, 2000) and the other pigeons (Zentall, Sutton, & Sherburne, 1996). Several other recent studies have demonstrated imitation in small birds (see Zentall, 2004), whose brains are tiny, as compared with those of the great apes. Of course, there may be important differences between what we can broadly call imitation in apes and that in species so different from them, and we shall consider these further below.…”

The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution ofHomo docens

“…Later studies by Whiten et al (2009) suggest, however, that the situation is more complicated: the apes are not confined to emulation but also imitate extensively. It has been shown, for example, that the technology of nut cracking among apes can be transmitted by social learning from one generation to the next (Fragaszy et al 2013;Wynn et al 2011). Zentall (2004 also presents evidence that imitation can be found in several bird species.…”

Social learning in birds and its role in shaping a foraging niche

“…learning of foraging sites through stimulus and local enhancement, rather than any true imitation; see [20] for definitions of levels and mechanisms of learning. There is little evidence for true imitation in the wild [20,50], although an increasing number of experimental studies suggests that birds are capable of motor imitation and production imitation [20,51]. New Caledonian crows, Corvus moneduloides, are the most sophisticated tool manufacturers other than humans.…”

“…The classical method has been to compare the behaviour of an animal allowed to observe a conspecific, with an animal not allowed to observe another, using a single transmission event [20,50]. An improvement is to apply 'diffusion' experiments, in which founder behaviours are experimentally manipulated and their spread across multiple individuals tested [62].…”