Vladimir Pravosudov: Chickadee spatial cognition

Some non-migratory bird species (“scatter-hoarders”) regularly store surplus food when it is abundant and then retrieve these caches throughout the winter and spring, allowing them to stay in the same places during the winter. Individual birds can make up to 500,000 caches during the year. Their ability to relocate previously made food caches is of paramount importance for their survival. They use spatial memory to find their caches. Their superior spatial memory ability is associated with a larger hippocampus, a brain region involved in spatial learning. Harsher winter conditions are associated with more food caching, better spatial memory and a larger hippocampus. Reliance on food caches for survival likely increases selection pressure on spatial cognition needed to find these caches. Highly advanced spatial cognitive abilities of food-caching birds seem to have evolved because of reliance on food caches.