The Super Spatial Memory of the Blue Jay
The common Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is among the most familiar of companions to bird feeding enthusiasts across much of Canada and the United States of America.
A bold beacon of loud blue energy and occasional bully at the feeding station, the Blue Jay is always fun bird to watch.
These birds are not only beautiful beyond the imagination, they are also thought to be quite intelligent.
For example, Blue Jays are a perfect example of a bird that stores food in caches for when the pickings get slim.
This requires a special kind of spatial memory that most of us never even dare try to conceive.
Imagine putting 80% of the pieces of every package of cookies, chips, peanuts, or candy you buy during several months time, in a different place around your house, neighborhood, and place of work, with the full intention of barely going grocery shopping for several months and relocating as many of those bites of metabolic energy as you possibly can so that you may live to see another day.
Sounds like an activity that would require a super spatial memory that just goes to work like the rest of your being and rarely warrants any conscious passing thought.
Every individual Blue Jay has a different caching style, handles a different volume of food, and has a different rate of success relocating those items.
One study that tracked six birds with radio transmitters estimated that each bird stored anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 individual food items.
How many people do you know that lose their sunglasses, cell phone, and/or car keys every single day? Could anyone you know remember where they had hidden each piece of popcorn from the movie theatre vat on the walk home from the show...
three months from now?Surely not, but what if it was a matter of life and death? Probably not even then could you imagine the task at hand.
So how does the Blue Jay do it? Scientists believe these birds have a super spatial memory, in which Jays use visual landmarks such as rocks or trees to remember where food sources were hidden.
Total beauty and competitive intelligence go to the Blue Jay who makes you reconsider the definition of "bird brained.
"
A bold beacon of loud blue energy and occasional bully at the feeding station, the Blue Jay is always fun bird to watch.
These birds are not only beautiful beyond the imagination, they are also thought to be quite intelligent.
For example, Blue Jays are a perfect example of a bird that stores food in caches for when the pickings get slim.
This requires a special kind of spatial memory that most of us never even dare try to conceive.
Imagine putting 80% of the pieces of every package of cookies, chips, peanuts, or candy you buy during several months time, in a different place around your house, neighborhood, and place of work, with the full intention of barely going grocery shopping for several months and relocating as many of those bites of metabolic energy as you possibly can so that you may live to see another day.
Sounds like an activity that would require a super spatial memory that just goes to work like the rest of your being and rarely warrants any conscious passing thought.
Every individual Blue Jay has a different caching style, handles a different volume of food, and has a different rate of success relocating those items.
One study that tracked six birds with radio transmitters estimated that each bird stored anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 individual food items.
How many people do you know that lose their sunglasses, cell phone, and/or car keys every single day? Could anyone you know remember where they had hidden each piece of popcorn from the movie theatre vat on the walk home from the show...
three months from now?Surely not, but what if it was a matter of life and death? Probably not even then could you imagine the task at hand.
So how does the Blue Jay do it? Scientists believe these birds have a super spatial memory, in which Jays use visual landmarks such as rocks or trees to remember where food sources were hidden.
Total beauty and competitive intelligence go to the Blue Jay who makes you reconsider the definition of "bird brained.
"
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