Playful birds: cormorants and herons play with objects and practice their skills

Sazima, Ivan

doi:10.1590/s1676-06032008000200025

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…However, in this work not only juveniles but also adult individuals of M. chimango were observed manipulating objects, using a diversity of behavior topographies, some of them complex and resembling those classified as play in other studies (Negro et al. ; Sazima ). As far as we know, this is the first study evidencing exploration and manipulation of objects that are unlike prey in both juveniles and adults in a bird of prey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The transportation of objects was observed in other bird species and categorized as play behavior. This is the case of adult and juvenile individuals of Neotropical Cormorants, which were observed walking a few steps while holding a branch in its bill and then releasing the branch to pick it up again (Sazima ). Here, the transportation of an object occurred always from the center of the aviary, where all objects were presented, to one of their extremes and then come back to the original location.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Age and Sex on Object Exploration and Manipulative Behavior in a Neotropical Raptor, the Chimango Caracara,Milvago chimango

et al. 2013

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We studied object exploration and manipulative behavior in wild‐caught Chimango Caracaras (Milvago chimango), an opportunistic and generalist raptor species, in relation to age and sex differences. Each bird was presented with six objects. We then recorded the latencies to approach and first contact with the objects, the number of objects explored, and the number of exploration events performed on each object. Age influenced the tendency to explore in M. chimango. Compared with adults, juveniles were more likely to explore the objects, approaching and contacting them more quickly. The number of objects explored was also higher in young than adult birds. Both age classes used a variety of manipulative behaviors to explore the objects, some of which have been described as play in others studies. Sex did not affect an individual's likelihood to explore or the number and frequency of manipulative behaviors used during object exploration. The tendency for both young and adult birds to explore and manipulate objects that not resemble prey is likely to be a distinct advantage for a generalist species like M. chimango which must cope with a high diversity of modified environments.

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“…This is related to the development of motor skills and is stimulated by the presence of conspecifics (Baldwin and Baldwin 1973;Cheney 1978), although it is also performed by individual animals (Gamble and Cristol 2002). Many examples are reported in mammals, but object play has been also observed in many birds (Gamble and Cristol 2002;Sazima 2008).…”

Section: General Description Of Animal Play Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Play behaviour in nonhuman animals and the animal welfare issue

Oliveira

Rossi

Silva

et al. 2009

J Ethol

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The mission of defining animal welfare indicators is methodologically difficult, limited, and possibly impossible. A promising alternative, however, to evaluate suitable environmental conditions is the assessment of play behaviour. In the present review, we summarise the general aspects of play behaviour in nonhuman animals and propose its use as a potential indicator of animal welfare. Play behaviour probably occurs in most vertebrates and some invertebrates, but predominately in mammals. It is also more frequent in young males and is associated with the environmental context in which animals find themselves. Animals play if they are healthy and well-fed, but not if they are under stressful conditions or if they are in a stressful state. We can therefore use the prevalence of play behaviour as an indicator of suitable environmental conditions, considering the specificity associated with the above-mentioned modifying factors.

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“…Under this explanation, the authors conclusions about seabird cognition are premature. And this alternative explanation is both plausible and likely as birds often pick up sticks, even when not building nests (2,3), and they often engage in self-directed preening. In fact, it would be surprising if the puffins did not occasionally engage in both behaviors simultaneously across the many years of observations in both locations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of tool use in a seabird?

Farrar¹

2020

Preprint

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Fayet, Hansen and Biro (1) provide two observations of Atlantic puffins, Fratercula arctica performing self-directed actions while holding a stick in their beaks. The authors interpret this as evidence of tool use as they suggest that the stick was manipulated towards the birds’ plumage with the specific goal of scratching. While these are interesting observations, the authors do not address a simple and likely explanation of the self-directed actions that does not constitute tool use; that the observations occurred by chance. As such, their conclusions about tool use and cognition in seabirds are premature.

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“…With César, I learned that, on the contrary, one can smile and laugh in the classroom, and I also learned that the act of playing is a topic worthy of research in the academic field. I think he also encouraged some of my colleagues who studied the play of capuchin monkeys (Resende & Ottoni, 2002), dolphins (Spinelli, Nascimento, & Yamamoto, 2002), mice and hamsters (Vieira & Sartorio, 2002), and Neotropic cormorants and striated herons (Sazima, 2008). However, there are still few studies on animal playing behavior in Brazil.…”

Section: The Reason Of the Ethologist Fascinated By The Observation mentioning

confidence: 96%

Brincar na perspectiva psicoetológica: implicações para pesquisa e prática

Otta

2017

Psicol. USP

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This study focuses on play from a psychoethological perspective and examines the implications for research and practice. Over the past decades, children are provided with more educational opportunities and more access to adult-led activities, albeit suffering a severe lack of self-directed play. This fact is worrying when we consider the indications in animal models that self-directed play is important for the development of the social brain and emotional self-regulation. This essay represents an invitation-justification for children to recover opportunities for natural play, of which they have been deprived. The more we know about play, the more suitable the opportunities we can offer them will be. We need to conduct further research on this topic, in an intellectual environment that enables collaboration between ethologists, psychologists, educators, and neuroscientists, promoting a bidirectional interaction between theory and practice.

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Playful birds: cormorants and herons play with objects and practice their skills

Cited by 12 publications

References 9 publications

The Effect of Age and Sex on Object Exploration and Manipulative Behavior in a Neotropical Raptor, the Chimango Caracara,Milvago chimango

Play behaviour in nonhuman animals and the animal welfare issue

Evidence of tool use in a seabird?

Brincar na perspectiva psicoetológica: implicações para pesquisa e prática

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