caa a22 4500 605541493 CHVBK 20210128100916.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-014-0778-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-014-0778-4 Inferential reasoning and egg rejection in a cooperatively breeding cuckoo [Elektronische Daten] [Christina Riehl, Meghan Strong, Scott Edwards] Inferential reasoning—associating a visible consequence with an imagined event—has been demonstrated in several bird species in captivity, but few studies have tested wild birds in ecologically relevant contexts. Here, we investigate inferential reasoning by thegreater ani, a cooperatively breeding cuckoo in which several females lay eggs in one nest. Prior to laying her first egg, each female removes any eggs that have already been laid by other females in the shared nest. After laying her first egg, however, each female stops removing eggs, presumably in order to avoid accidentally rejecting her own. But are anis using inferential reasoning to track the fate of their eggs in the communal nest, or is egg ejection governed by non-cognitive determinants? We experimentally removed eggs from two-female nests after both females had laid at least one egg and used video recording to verify that both females viewed the empty nest. We waited until one female (A) laid an egg in the nest, and video recorded the behavior of the female that had not yet re-laid (B). We predicted that if capable of inferential reasoning, female B should infer that the new egg could not be her own and she should remove it. Five out of five females tested failed to make this inference, suggesting that egg removal is either determined by the female's reproductive status or by the amount of time elapsed between egg removal and re-laying. This apparent cognitive constraint may have implications for the evolutionary stability of the anis' unusual breeding system. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 Inferential reasoning nationallicence Cognition nationallicence Conspecific brood parasitism nationallicence Egg recognition nationallicence Egg rejection nationallicence Ani nationallicence Riehl Christina Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut Strong Meghan Anthropology Department, California State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., 91330, Northridge, CA, USA aut Edwards Scott Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 75-82 1435-9448 18:1<75 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0778-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0778-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Riehl Christina Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Strong Meghan Anthropology Department, California State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., 91330, Northridge, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Edwards Scott Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/1(2015-01-01), 75-82 1435-9448 18:1<75 2015 18 10071