Cooperative Cognition in kea

Abstract

Kea are a curious and intelligent New Zealand parrot that are relatively understudied. While laboratory studies have shown kea to be capable physical problem solvers, little is known about their social cognition. Given that kea possess many of the traits that are claimed to be prerequisites for advanced social cognition, such as large relative brain size, complex social living, monogamous pair bonding and extractive foraging, they are an ideal candidate for studies of social cognition. By studying social cognition in kea we can compare them with primates and investigate whether kea have evolved similar cognitive mechanisms through the process of convergent evolution. In this thesis, I examine cooperative cognition in kea. I report the findings of three experiments, each designed to explore whether kea possess particular cognitive mechanisms which are claimed to underpin cooperative cognition. These include whether kea understand when they need a partner in a cooperative task and also when they do not, the role that their partner plays in the task and if they preferred to work together or alone on a task. I also examined prosocial behaviour and inequity aversion in kea. I suggest that kea might possess some of the traits that are indicative of advanced cooperative cognition, such as understanding the need for a partner and understanding when a task can be solved alone. The kea’s performance on these tasks was on par with the performance of chimpanzees and elephants at similar tasks, and above those of other “intelligent” avian species, such as rooks and African Grey parrots. The results from this thesis indicate that kea may not be intrinsically prosocial but this requires further testing employing different methodologies. Kea did not show any evidence of inequity aversion and our results do not support the hypothesis that inequity aversion evolved in species that are both highly social and cooperative. Overall, this thesis highlights that at least some aspects of cooperative cognition might have evolved convergently in kea.