General cognitive performance declines with female age and is negatively related to fledging success in a wild bird.

Ageing birds have more chicks but less brain power

1 June 2023

As females of one species of bird in South Africa grew older, they produced more offspring but also performed worse on cognitive tests.

A high cognitive ability (the equivalent of IQ in humans) is clearly an beneficial trait for animals, but other traits might impart a greater evolutionary advantage to a species. Scientists are interested in understanding what factors affect cognitive ability in animals.

Now, a team that included researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa has found that the cognitive ability of female Southern pied babblers dropped as they aged, while they simultaneously gave birth to more chicks.

In contrast, the cognitive ability of male birds remained constant as they aged. This suggests that a trade-off exists between reproductive productivity and cognitive ability in females.

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References

1. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289, 20221748 (2022). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1748