Arabian babblers show cognitive flexibility when prepping meals, depending on how they need to be processed for eating.
The birds rub the hairs off some caterpillar species and pulverize the insides of others.Source: Yitzchak Ben Mocha, via Wikimedia Commons
This discovery was born of opportunistic observations. Scientists have continuously monitored a wild population of Arabian babblers at the Shezaf Nature Reserve in Israel since 1971. The birds are habituated to human presence, and, since they are individually marked, researchers know a lot about each bird’s life history and relationships.was collecting videos of the babblers for his Ph.D. research on their gestural communication.
Other caterpillar species that lack setae are transported to a hard substrate and pounded until their insides spill out, after which only the external body is eaten. “There is still much we do not know,” he says. “We describe the behavior, but we do not know how it’s learned or why.”
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