Clever Cornish Birds:how jackdaws adapt to live alongside us
About
Lecture synopsis:The corvids, birds of the crow family, have featured in human myths and legends around the world since time immemorial, feared and revered in equal measure for their wisdom and cunning. Today, science is revealing the minds behind the myths, uncovering remarkable cognitive abilities that rival those of our close primate relatives. For more than a decade, the Cornish Jackdaw Project has studied the behaviour and cognition of wild jackdaws, highly social corvids that often live alongside humans. In this talk, I will explore how jackdaws’ remarkable sensitivity to change, capacity for learning, and ability to gather information from one another allow them to adapt and thrive in human-dominated environments. These findings offer important insights into how intelligence evolves, and why some species flourish, even as many others decline in our rapidly changing world.
Speaker bio:
I am a Professor of Cognitive Evolution at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus, where I run the Wild Cognition Research Group. My work seeks to understand how the challenges faced by animals in their natural environments shape the evolution of intelligence and culture. My research has taken me across the world, working with a variety of species including meerkats, jackdaws, prawns and humans. My current research focuses mainly on cognition and behaviour in wild jackdaws, the cognitive foundations of human culture and the application of cognitive research in wildlife conservation.
Location
Old Schools
Market Square, Hatherleigh, Devon EX20 3JB
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Clever Cornish Birds:how jackdaws adapt to live alongside us
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