A Birdbrain Strategy

Every fall the Clark's nutcracker collects more than 30,000 pine nuts, buries them in caches within a 15-mile area, and then relies almost entirely upon its memory to find the caches throughout the winter in order to survive.

Scientists at the University of New Hampshire are studying the Clark's nutcracker in hopes of learning more about memory and its evolution.  "Nutcrackers are almost exclusively dependent upon cache recovery for their survival so if they don't remember where they've made those caches, then they are in trouble," says Brett Gibson, an animal behavioral scientist involved in the study.  "What's clear is that they are using spatial memory to recover these caches."

Research has found that nutcrackers have better spatial memory compared to related birds that are not as dependent upon the recovery of food caches during the winter for their survival.  Gibson is currently looking into how the nutcrackers use spatial cues specified by memory to find its food caches.

--Rachele Cooper

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Credit:  Brett Gibson, University of New Hampshire