The use of tools has become a benchmark for cognitive sophistication. Originally regarded as a defining feature of our species, tool-use behaviours have subsequently been revealed in other primates an...

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Abstract. Techniques used by North American badgers (Taxidea taxus) when hunting Richardson's ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were assessed ov

Many animals will seek information when they do not know the answer to a problem, suggesting that they monitor their knowledge state. In the classic “tubes task,” subjects are presented with a set of opaque tubes and either see (visible trials) or do not see (hidden trials) which tube holds a food reward on a given trial. Chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and human children show information-seeking behavior on this task, looking into the tubes to find the reward more on hidden than on visible trials. However, evidence for information-seeking behavior in gorillas is limited. In Experiment 1, gorillas that were presented with a classic information-seeking tubes task showed performance patterns consistent with metacognitive behavior; they looked down tubes more on hidden than on visible trials, their accuracy on hidden trials on which they looked was higher than on hidden trials on which they did not look, and they primarily employed an appropriate search strategy when looking down the tubes. In Experiment 2, we decreased or increased the amount of effort required to look down the tubes by increasing or decreasing the height of the tubes, respectively. Gorillas were less likely to look in tubes on trials that required high effort, but continued to look more on hidden than on visible trials, indicating that their tendency to look was affected by both knowledge state and effort. Together these results provide strong evidence for logical, controlled information-seeking behavior by gorillas.

The cooperative breeding hypothesis posits that cooperatively breeding species are motivated to act prosocially, that is, to behave in ways that provide benefits to others, and that cooperative breedi...

Cognitive skills, such as innovative problem-solving, are hypothesized to aid animals in urban environments. However, the significance of innovation in wild populations, and its expression across indi...

Living in large, stable groups is often considered to favour the evolution of cognitive abilities related to social living, such as the ability to tra…

Abstract. Although some birds can detect wavelengths in the infrasound range, there has been litle evidence that birds produce very low frequencies. We mad

In the light of recent molecular studies, there are two phylogenetic species of the red panda (<i>Ailurus fulgens</i>): <i>Ailurus fulgens fulgens</i> and <i>Ailurus fulgens styani</i>. The red panda ...