Researchers from Western University, along with colleagues from the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Oklahoma, studied the spatial cognitive skills and lifespan of 227 mountain chickadees for over ten years. Their findings revealed that birds with superior spatial memory and learning capabilities tended to live longer.
While the principle of ‘survival of the fittest’ is widely accepted in the animal kingdom, recent research indicates that intelligence — or at least a degree of intelligence — plays a significant role as well.
Research led by Carrie Branch, a researcher focused on animal behavior and cognition, found that mountain chickadees with better spatial skills, including how they understand their environment and manage their food storage techniques, enjoyed a longer life. This study was published on September 5 in the journal Science and highlights the link between enhanced cognitive skills and increased lifespan in wild chickadees.
“Animals have two main goals: survival and reproduction. Therefore, it makes sense for them to engage in behaviors that support these objectives. For mountain chickadees, this means knowing where to gather and store food, as well as remembering those locations to access the food later,” explained Branch, who is also a psychology professor and principal investigator at Western’s Advanced Facility for Avian Research, a leading center for bird biology studies.
Cognitive ability has traditionally been viewed as a crucial factor for survival and longevity in animals; however, many experiments rely on indirect assessments of mental capacity, like brain size. Chickadees are small birds with relatively small brains, yet they excelled in various tests designed by Branch and her team in a remote location in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
“I believe the specialized cognitive abilities of chickadees stem from their social dominance dynamics, but we are still exploring that idea. For now, we can confirm that chickadees effectively cache and retrieve food using spatial cognition, and those who excel in this skill tend to live longer,” Branch stated.
Native to North America, chickadees are quite prevalent and can hide upwards of 80,000 seeds, which they retrieve during the winter months.
Longer lives equate to more offspring
Using radio frequency-based feeders organized in groups of eight, which include motorized doors that open automatically for birds with electronic tags, Branch and her associates evaluated the cognitive skills of mountain chickadees. After a decade of data gathering, it was revealed that those with the best spatial cognitive abilities could live, on average, two additional years compared to their less skilled counterparts. Since mountain chickadees breed only once a year and typically have around seven eggs per clutch, those with superior spatial skills could potentially raise more than double the offspring (approximately 14 more) than those with inferior cognitive capabilities. Previous research by Branch and her team has shown that females tend to have more offspring when mated with “smarter” males.
“This study indicates that mountain chickadees with enhanced spatial cognitive skills are more likely to have longer lifespans, as these skills enable them to efficiently locate cached food while navigating challenging and unpredictable environments, including severe weather conditions linked to climate change,” Branch remarked.
