CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A British-led study finds western scrub-jays can spontaneously plan for the future without reference to their current motivational state.
Nicola Clayton of the University of Cambridge and colleagues at the University of Toronto studied the behavior of the birds under different feeding conditions. The birds were placed in two different compartments on alternate mornings for six days. In one compartment they were always given breakfast and in the other they were not.
After training the birds were unexpectedly given food in the evening. The researchers said the birds stored more of the evening food when in the compartment in which they had not been given breakfast -- apparently expecting to be hungry again the next morning.
In a similar experiment, the birds stored a particular food in the compartment in which that type of food would not be available the next morning, thereby demonstrating planning and ensuring a choice of food the following breakfast.
The researchers say such planning challenges the belief that making provision for the future is a uniquely human skill.
The experiment appears in the journal Nature.
