Low heritability in tool use skills in a wild vulture population

Stone-tool-assisted hunting by a wild monkey (Macaca fascicularis aurea)

We report anecdotal evidence for stone-tool-assisted hunting by a non-human primate. Wild Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) in Laem Son National Park, Thailand, regularly consume crabs, processing them both with and without stone pounding tools. However, stone-tool-assisted capture of crab prey, prior to the processing for consumption, has yet to be reported. We observed a tool-using episode as part of the hunting process, and provide video evidence confirming Burmese long-tailed macaques as the first known non-human primate to hunt and subdue other animals with the aid of stone tools.

Vultures as an overlooked model in cognitive ecology

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.