To pull or push? Performance of four passerine species in the lever-pulling task
Anita Szabó, Alice Exnerová · 2026
Read To pull or push? Performance of four passerine species in the lever-pulling task by Anita Szabó, Alice Exnerová (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13454000.txt.
Description
Anita Szabó and Alice Exnerová tested lever-pulling in four passerine species in 2026, asking whether foraging strategy links to problem-solving. Blue tits and great tits are known for cognitive success, while coal tits and nuthatches, which store food, remain understudied despite similar habitats. Lever-pulling is a classic problem-solving paradigm.
Wild-caught blue and great tit adults plus hand-reared young of all four species were tested, with behavior leading to success analyzed for cognitive mechanisms and motor tendencies. Comparing food-storing versus non-storing species reveals whether caching habits predict innovation. The study adds comparative data beyond the few bird taxa usually studied, informing how birds adapt to changing environments through innovation.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Anita Szabó, Alice Exnerová |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |