The role of cognition in construction behavior in the zebra finch
Creators: Camacho Alpizar, Andres Jose
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2023

<p>Numerous species of animals collect material from their environment to build structures that can play a very important role in their survival and reproductive success. However, even though construction behaviour is taxonomically widespread and ecologically relevant, there is very limited knowledge on the mechanisms behind it. For example, very little is known about how learning and other cognitive abilities influence nest-building decisions and how animals know and learn what structures to build. Nest building by birds, has recently arisen as a useful model to study the relationship between construction behaviour and cognition due to both, observational and experimental data that have shown that birds are able to change their nest-building behaviour according to previous experience as well as the behaviour of conspecifics. In this thesis, I examined the role that cognition plays in nest-building behaviour in order to better understand the mechanisms behind construction behaviour. I did so by conducting a series of experiments involving nest building in the laboratory with the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) as a model system. In Chapter 2, I explored how trial-and-error learning influences nest-building decisions by manipulating the breeding success of birds. I found that unsuccessful birds used more novel material than successful birds when given the option to build a nest using the same material with which they were unsuccessful or a novel type of material. These results show that birds have the capacity not only to remember what building material they used in the past, but also associate that material with breeding success and make future decisions based on this information.  In Chapter 3, I examined whether nest-building birds use social information from abandoned nests (i.e., artefacts) when selecting material for their first nest. More specifically, I examined whether observing a conspecific using a nest allows birds to identify future abandoned nests, thus facilitating recognition of an artefact (i.e., the abandoned nest) as a source of social information. I found that birds do indeed act like archaeologists and can learn about what nest material to use from artefacts, but only if they first learned what a nest was by observing other birds using nests. Therefore, these results suggest that observing a conspecific using a nest allows birds to learn what a nest is and looks like. In Chapter 4, I explored the role of laterality (i.e., the specialization of each brain hemisphere for different perceptual, cognitive and behavioural tasks) on nest building. I found evidence for behavioural/brain laterality (i.e., picking up nest material while using the right or left eye) in nest building. Individuals varied both in their laterality direction and laterality strength. Birds that showed strongly lateralized behaviour during nest building built nests faster than birds that did not, but only when these birds had no previous nesting experience. Summing up my results, this thesis found evidence that cognition indeed influences nest construction. My results shed light on how cognitive abilities, like learning and memory, play a role in how an individual builds a nest. Beyond the contribution of my thesis to the study of avian nest building, this thesis contributes to our understanding of cognition and decision-making processes during construction endeavours by animals.</p>