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New Zealand pest control operations commonly deploy toxic sodium fluoroacetate (1080) baits to control introduced mammalian predators and protect vulnerable native fauna, yet the highly intelligent kea (Nestor notabilis) is at risk of mortality following ingestion of toxic baits intended for their protection. We tested the retention of conditioned aversion in 11 captive kea that had learned to avoid baits containing the bird repellent anthraquinone alongside color, olfactory, and taste cues. We revisited kea over increasing time intervals (3 days, 5 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 yr) offering them otherwise identical non‐repellent baits. Kea retained their aversion until the final session, 1 year after previous exposure to reinforcement, and almost 2 years since previous exposure to repellent. Whether the kea forgot their aversion or the repeated exposures to non‐repellent baits resulted in extinction of the aversion, our results indicate that kea are capable of remembering an aversion for long enough to be of practical use to conservation managers in reducing kea mortality through 1080 operations. Pest control operations can result in accidental by‐kill of kea, New Zealand's endangered alpine parrot. This study demonstrates kea can learn and remember conditioned taste aversion to baits resembling poison for at least 10 months, long enough to be of use to train avoidance in the wild.

In recent years, increasingly interdisciplinary exchanges have demonstrated how scientific knowledge of captive cognition and behaviour can prove valuable for informing conservation efforts for endangered species. New Zealand’s endemic mountain parrot, the kea (Nestor notabilis), has shown ape-like performance across a range of cognitive tasks, yet there have been few attempts to use captive studies to inform the conservation of this endangered species. Here, we outline how some of the studies on the behaviour and cognition of kea could provide valuable insights and guide changes in policies and strategies for their conservation. Further, we highlight areas where further research is required to bridge the gap between captive studies and practical applications in the wild.

The ability to craft tools is one of the defining features of our species. The technical intelligence hypothesis predicts that tool‐making species should have enhanced physical cognition. Here we review how the physical problem‐solving performance of tool‐making apes and corvids compares to closely related species. We conclude that, while some performance differences have been found, overall the evidence is at best equivocal. We argue that increased sample sizes, novel experimental designs, and a signature‐testing approach are required to determine the effect tool crafting has on the evolution of intelligence. WIREs Cogn Sci2014, 5:693–703. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1322

Numerous myths and legends across the world have suggested that corvids are intelligent. However, it is only in the last two decades that their cognition has become the subject of serious scientific investigation. Here I review what we currently know about the temporal, social, and physical cognition of this group. I argue that, while the work to date establishes corvids as one of the most intelligent groups of animals on the planet, the real scientific potential of the Corvidaehas yet to be realized. However, a novel ‘signature‐testing’ experimental approach is required if we want to unlock this group's promise and gain insights into the evolution of human and animal minds.

Human psychology and animal cognition have increasingly used virtual stimuli to test cognitive abilities, with the expectation that participants are ‘naive realists’, that is, that they perceive virtual environments as both equivalent and continuous with real-life equivalents. However, there have been no attempts to investigate whether nonhuman subjects in fact behave as if physical processes in the virtual and real worlds are continuous. As kea parrots have previously shown the ability to transfer knowledge between real stimuli and both images on paper and images on touchscreens, here we test whether kea behave as naive realists and so expect physical processes to be continuous between the physical and virtual worlds. We find that, unlike infants, kea do not discriminate between these two contexts, and that they do not exhibit a preference for either. Our findings therefore validate the use of virtual stimuli as a powerful tool for testing the cognition of nonhuman animal species.

Humans and chimpanzees both exhibit context-dependent tool use. That is, both species choose to use tools when food is within reach, but the context is potentially hazardous. Here, we show that New Caledonian crows used tools more frequently when food was positioned next to a novel model snake than when food was positioned next to a novel teddy bear or a familiar food bowl. However, the crows showed no significant difference in their neophobic reactions towards the teddy bear and the model snake. Therefore, the crows used tools more in response to a risky object resembling a natural predator than to a less-threatening object that provoked a comparable level of neophobia. These results show that New Caledonian crows, like humans and chimpanzees, are capable of context-dependent tool use.