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Vultures as an overlooked model in cognitive ecology

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Abstract

Despite important recent advances in cognitive ecology, our current understanding of avian cognition still largely rests on research conducted on a few model taxa. Vultures are an ecologically distinctive group of species by being the only obligate carrion consumers across terrestrial vertebrates. Their unique scavenging lifestyle suggests they have been subject to particular selective pressures to locate scarce, unpredictable, ephemeral, and nutritionally challenging food. However, substantial variation exists among species in diet, foraging techniques and social structure of populations. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on vulture cognition through a comprehensive literature review and a compilation of our own observations. We find evidence for a variety of innovative foraging behaviors, scrounging tactics, collective problem-solving abilities and tool-use, skills that are considered indicative of enhanced cognition and that bear clear connections with the eco-social lifestyles of species. However, we also find that the cognitive basis of these skills remain insufficiently studied, and identify new research areas that require further attention in the future. Despite these knowledge gaps and the challenges of working with such large animals, we conclude that vultures may provide fresh insight into our knowledge of the ecology and evolution of cognition.

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Availability of data and material

Data on brain size used in this paper are online available through Fristoe TS, Iwaniuk AN, Botero CA (2017) Big brains stabilize populations and facilitate colonization of variable habitats in birds. Nat Ecol Evol 1:1706–1715.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ana Trujillano, Carmen Díez, Marcos Mallo, Laura Gangoso, Walo Moreno, Toni Mulet, Juan Ramírez, Julio Roldán and José Antonio Sarrión for their invaluable work in monitoring the “Guirre” population on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to improve and clarify this manuscript.

Funding

Thijs van Overveld received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No “SocForVul 659008” and through a National Geographic Research grant No “295-R18”. The long-term monitoring of the Canarian Egyptian vulture population on Fuerteventura has been funded by the projects REN 2000–1556 GLO, CGL2004-00270/BOS, CGL2009-12753-C02-02, CGL2012-40013-C02-01, CGL2015-66966-C2-1-2-R and RTI2018-099609-B-C21 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and EU/FEDER). Further support was provided by the Cabildo Insular de Fuerteventura and the Dirección General de Protección de la Naturaleza (Viceconsejería de Medio Ambiente, Canarian Government). Antoni Margalida, Guillermo Blanco and Daniel Sol were funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (projects RTI2018-099609-B-C22, PID2019-109685 GB-I00 and PID2020-119514 GB-I00, respectively).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Américo Vespucio 26, 41092, Sevilla, Spain

    Thijs van Overveld, Manuel de la Riva & José Antonio Donázar

  2. CSIC-CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Catalonia, Spain

    Daniel Sol

  3. Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Guillermo Blanco

  4. Institute for Game and Wildlife Research, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain

    Antoni Margalida

  5. Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Antoni Margalida

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  1. Thijs van Overveld
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  2. Daniel Sol
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  3. Guillermo Blanco
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  4. Antoni Margalida
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  5. Manuel de la Riva
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  6. José Antonio Donázar
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Contributions

TO devised the project, developed the main conceptual ideas and conducted the literature search. DS performed data analysis of brain size. TO wrote the manuscript, assisted by DS and GB, AM, MdlR, JAD. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thijs van Overveld.

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van Overveld, T., Sol, D., Blanco, G. et al. Vultures as an overlooked model in cognitive ecology. Anim Cogn 25, 495–507 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-021-01585-2

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