Bigger Brains Help Birds in New Environments
Mar 30, 2005 - 6:45:00 AM
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The authors report that species with larger brains, relative to their body mass, tend to be more successful at establishing new populations.
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By Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
[RxPG] Larger brains are hypothesized to have evolved as an adaptation to cope with novel or changed environments, yet empirical support has been difficult to find.
Daniel Sol et al. analyzed a global database of >600 cases of deliberate human efforts to introduce 195 bird species into new environments. The authors report that species with larger brains, relative to their body mass, tend to be more successful at establishing new populations.
The authors controlled for variables that might affect a species' survival, such as native geographic range, fecundity, and broadness of diet. The researchers also searched the literature for reports of unusual behavior among newly introduced birds and found that brain size was positively correlated with establishment success through its effect on innovative behaviors, which suggests cognitive rather than noncognitive mechanisms behind the relationship between survival and brain size.
Several explanations have been suggested, according to the authors, including the ability of a larger-brained animal to learn to reach less accessible foods or to deal with changes in social structure.
Publication:
"Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments" by Daniel Sol, Richard P. Duncan, Tim M. Blackburn, Phillip Cassey, and Louis Lefebvre
On the web:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
PNAS is one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. Since its establishment in 1914, it continues to publish cutting-edge research reports, commentaries, reviews, perspectives, colloquium papers, and actions of the Academy. Coverage in PNAS spans the biological, physical, and social sciences. PNAS is published weekly in print, and daily online in PNAS Early Edition. The PNAS impact factor is 10.3 for 2003. PNAS is available by subscription.
PNAS is abstracted and/or indexed in: Index Medicus, PubMed Central, Current Contents, Medline, SPIN, JSTOR, ISI Web of Science, and BIOSIS.
Please note that the articles in PNAS report original research by independent authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Academy of Sciences or the National Research Council.
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