Learning and Color Discrimination in the American Black Bear

Bacon, Ellis S.; Burghardt, Gordon M.

doi:10.2307/3872751

Cited by 29 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Most of the foods they exploit are available both day and night, but diurnal foraging enables bears to use their sense of sight. Colour vision may be particularly useful to bears when searching for ripe berries (Bacon & Burghardt, 1976). Hence, both American and Asiatic black bears may tend to be more diurnal during summer months when berries form a large part of their diet (Garshelis & Pelton, 1980; Swanson, 1990; Hwang, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity patterns and time budgets of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in the Apolobamba Range of Bolivia

Paisley

Garshelis

2005

Journal of Zoology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity patterns and time budgets of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in the Apolobamba Range of Bolivia

Paisley

Garshelis

2005

Journal of Zoology

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“…For example, there is relatively little known about bear cognition. This has begun to change in recent years as more empirical studies have been carried out with giant pandas [2,3,4,5,6] and black bears [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Computerized testing has a long history in laboratory settings, and recent work has begun to expand this to a zoo setting and allow for direct comparisons to laboratory findings [19]. Vonk and colleagues have greatly expanded the use of computerized testing with bears [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Here, this is expanded to a previously untested species—the sun bear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences

Perdue

2016

Behavioral Sciences

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The field of comparative cognition investigates species’ differences and similarities in cognitive abilities, and sheds light on the evolutionary origins of such capacities. Cognitive testing has been carried out in a variety of species; however, there are some taxa that are underrepresented in this field. The current work follows on a recent increase in cognitive research in the order Carnivora with a specific focus on sun bears. Sun bears are the smallest existing bear species and live in tropical regions of Southeast Asia. They have an omnivorous diet and use their tongues to forage for insects and sap. Little is known about sun bear cognition, although much like other bear species, anecdotes suggest a high level of intelligence. The current work explored training sun bears to use a touchscreen computer. This effort allows for insight into cognitive abilities as well as providing a complex source of enrichment for the bears. The bears use their tongues to respond to a touchscreen computer, and the effects on stereotypic behaviors on exhibit and preference for this over other forms of enrichment were examined. Overall, bears performed well on the task and showed a preference for the computer.

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“…Both black and red dots moved within the array. On the basis of previous work on color discrimination in bears (Bacon & Burghardt, 1976; Kelling et al, 2006) it was believed that the bears should be easily able to discriminate the black and red dots. The target sets that were paired on each trial could not contain the same number of dots.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other than reports on visual and spatial abilities (Bacon & Burghardt, 1976; Dungl, Schratter & Huber, 2008; Kelling, et. al, 2006; Perdue, Snyder, Zhihe, Marr & Maple, 2011; Tarou, 2004) and tool use (Bentley-Condit, & Smith, 2010; Deecke, 2012) nothing is known of their cognitive traits in comparison to social species such as corvids (Emery, & Clayton; 2004; Seed, Emery & Clayton, 2009), other large-brained mammals, such as primates (Rosati, Santos & Hare, 2010; Tomasello & Call, 1997), and other carnivores, such as canines (Hare, 2007; Kubinyi, et al, 2007; Miklósi, & Topál, 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Bears ‘count’ too: quantity estimation and comparison in black bears, Ursus americanus

2012

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Studies of bear cognition are notably missing from the comparative record despite bears’ large relative brain size and interesting status as generalist carnivores facing complex foraging challenges, but lacking complex social structures. We investigated the numerical abilities of three American black bears (Ursus Americanus) by presenting discrimination tasks on a touch-screen computer. One bear chose the larger of two arrays of dot stimuli, while two bears chose the smaller array of dots. On some trials the relative number of dots was congruent with the relative total area of the two arrays. On other trials number of dots was incongruent with area. All of the bears were above chance on trials of both types with static dots. Despite encountering greater difficulty with dots that moved within the arrays, one bear was able to discriminate numerically larger arrays of moving dots, and a subset of moving dots from within the larger array, even when area and number were incongruent. Thus, although the bears used area as a cue to guide responding, they were also able to use number as a cue. The pattern of performance was similar to that found previously with monkeys, and suggests that bears may also show other forms of sophisticated quantitative abilities.

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Learning and Color Discrimination in the American Black Bear

Cited by 29 publications

References 8 publications

Activity patterns and time budgets of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in the Apolobamba Range of Bolivia

Activity patterns and time budgets of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) in the Apolobamba Range of Bolivia

The Effect of Computerized Testing on Sun Bear Behavior and Enrichment Preferences

Bears ‘count’ too: quantity estimation and comparison in black bears, Ursus americanus

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