Seeds of language-like generativity in bird call combinations.

Language is unbounded in its generativity, enabling the flexible combination of words into novel sentences. Critically, these constructions are intelligible to others due to our ability to derive a sentence's compositional meaning from the semantic relationships among its components. Some animals also concatenate meaningful calls into compositional-like combinations to communicate more complex information.

Investigating the relationship between physical cognitive tasks and a social cognitive task in a wild bird.

Despite considerable research into the structure of cognition in non-human animal species, there is still much debate as to whether animal cognition is organised as a series of discrete domains or an overarching general cognitive factor. In humans, the existence of general intelligence is widely accepted, but less work has been undertaken in animal psychometrics to address this question. The relatively few studies on non-primate animal species that do investigate the structure of cognition rarely include tasks assessing social cognition and focus instead on physical cognitive tasks.

Juvenile social play predicts adult reproductive success in male bottlenose dolphins.

For over a century, the evolution of animal play has sparked scientific curiosity. The prevalence of social play in juvenile mammals suggests that play is a beneficial behavior, potentially contributing to individual fitness. Yet evidence from wild animals supporting the long-hypothesized link between juvenile social play, adult behavior, and fitness remains limited.

Meta-analyses reveal support for the Social Intelligence Hypothesis.

The Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH) is one of the leading explanations for the evolution of cognition. Since its inception a vast body of literature investigating the predictions of the SIH has accumulated, using a variety of methodologies and species. However, the generalisability of the hypothesis remains unclear.

Aggressive interactions influence cognitive performance in Western Australian magpies.

Extensive research has investigated the relationship between the social environment and cognition, suggesting that social complexity may drive cognitive evolution and development. However, evidence for this relationship remains equivocal. Group size is often used as a measure of social complexity, but this may not capture intraspecific variation in social interactions.

Problem-solving ability: a link between cognition and conservation?

Traditionally, conservation and cognition have been disparate research disciplines. However, Audet et al.'s recent research contributes to an increasing body of evidence that innovative behaviours may determine the ability of species to respond to rapid environmental change, identifying an opportunity for cognition research to directly contribute to conservation outcomes.

Call combination production is linked to the social environment in Western Australian magpies ().

It has recently become clear that some language-specific traits previously thought to be unique to humans (such as the capacity to combine sounds) are widespread in the animal kingdom. Despite the increase in studies documenting the presence of call combinations in non-human animals, factors promoting this vocal trait are unclear. One leading hypothesis proposes that communicative complexity co-evolved with social complexity owing to the need to transmit a diversity of information to a wider range of social partners.

Heritability of cognitive performance in wild Western Australian magpies.

Individual differences in cognitive performance can have genetic, social and environmental components. Most research on the heritability of cognitive traits comes from humans or captive non-human animals, while less attention has been given to wild populations. Western Australian magpies ( hereafter magpies) show phenotypic variation in cognitive performance, which affects reproductive success.

High temperatures during early development reduce adult cognitive performance and reproductive success in a wild animal population.

Global warming is rapidly changing the phenology, distribution, behaviour and demography of wild animal populations. Recent studies in wild animals have shown that high temperatures can induce short-term cognitive impairment, and captive studies have demonstrated that heat exposure during early development can lead to long-term cognitive impairment. Given that cognition underpins behavioural flexibility and can be directly linked to fitness, understanding how high temperatures during early life might impact adult cognitive performance in wild animals is a critical next step to predict wildlife responses to climate change.

High temperatures are associated with reduced cognitive performance in wild southern pied babblers.

Global temperatures are increasing rapidly. While considerable research is accumulating regarding the lethal and sublethal effects of heat on wildlife, its potential impact on animal cognition has received limited attention. Here, we tested wild southern pied babblers () on three cognitive tasks (associative learning, reversal learning and inhibitory control) under naturally occurring heat stress and non-heat stress conditions.

Chemokines form complex signals during inflammation and disease that can be decoded by extracellular matrix proteoglycans.

Chemokine-driven leukocyte recruitment is a key component of the immune response and of various diseases. Therapeutically targeting the chemokine system in inflammatory disease has been unsuccessful, which has been attributed to redundancy. We investigated why chemokines instead have specific, specialized functions, as demonstrated by multiple studies.

Cognition mediates response to anthropogenic noise in wild Western Australian magpies (Gmynorhina tibicen dorsalis).

Anthropogenic noise is a pollutant of growing concern, with wide-ranging effects on taxa across ecosystems. Until recently, studies investigating the effects of anthropogenic noise on animals focused primarily on population-level consequences, rather than individual-level impacts. Individual variation in response to anthropogenic noise may result from extrinsic or intrinsic factors.

Helpers don't help when it's hot in a cooperatively breeding bird, the Southern Pied Babbler.

Cooperative breeding, where more than two individuals invest in rearing a single brood, occurs in many bird species globally and often contributes to improved breeding outcomes. However, high temperatures are associated with poor breeding outcomes in many species, including cooperative species. We used data collected over three austral summer breeding seasons to investigate the contribution that helpers make to daytime incubation in a cooperatively breeding species, the Southern Pied Babbler , and the ways in which their contribution is influenced by temperature.

Multi-level combinatoriality in magpie non-song vocalizations.

Comparative studies conducted over the past few decades have provided important insights into the capacity for animals to combine vocal segments at either one of two levels: within- or between-calls. There remains, however, a distinct gap in knowledge as to whether animal combinatoriality can extend beyond one level. Investigating this requires a comprehensive analysis of the combinatorial features characterizing a species' vocal system.

Chemokine CXCL4 interactions with extracellular matrix proteoglycans mediate widespread immune cell recruitment independent of chemokine receptors.

Leukocyte recruitment from the vasculature into tissues is a crucial component of the immune system but is also key to inflammatory disease. Chemokines are central to this process but have yet to be therapeutically targeted during inflammation due to a lack of mechanistic understanding. Specifically, CXCL4 (Platelet Factor 4, PF4) has no established receptor that explains its function.

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

Identifying the causes and fitness consequences of intraspecific variation in cognitive performance is fundamental to understand how cognition evolves. Selection may act on different cognitive traits separately or jointly as part of the general cognitive performance (GCP) of the individual. To date, few studies have examined simultaneously whether individual cognitive performance covaries across different cognitive tasks, the relative importance of individual and social attributes in determining cognitive variation, and its fitness consequences in the wild.

Repeated testing does not confound cognitive performance in the Western Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen dorsalis).

A robust understanding of cognitive variation at the individual level is essential to understand selection for and against cognitive traits. Studies of animal cognition often assume that within-individual performance is highly consistent. When repeated tests of individuals have been conducted, the effects of test order (the overall sequence in which different tests are conducted) and test number (the ordinal number indicating when a specific test falls within a sequence)-in particular the potential for individual performance to improve with repeated testing-have received limited attention.

Periorbital temperature responses to natural air temperature variation in wild birds.

With global temperatures rapidly increasing, biologists require tools to assess how wild animals are responding to heat. Thermal imaging of the eye region offers a potential non-invasive alternative to traditional techniques to study thermoregulation and stress responses in wild animals. However, we currently have a poor understanding of how the temperature of the eye region is regulated under increasing temperature and whether this regulation differs among individuals.

Does trappability and self-selection influence cognitive performance?

Recent research has highlighted how trappability and self-selection-the processes by which individuals with particular traits may be more likely to be caught or to participate in experiments-may be sources of bias in studies of animal behaviour and cognition. It is crucial to determine whether such biases exist, and if they do, what effect they have on results. In this study, we investigated if trappability (quantified through 'ringing status'-whether or not a bird had been trapped for ringing) and self-selection are sources of bias in a series of associative learning experiments spanning 5 years in the Western Australian magpie ().

Long-term repeatability of cognitive performance.

Measures of cognitive performance, derived from psychometric tasks, have yielded important insights into the factors governing cognitive variation. However, concerns remain over the robustness of these measures, which may be susceptible to non-cognitive factors such as motivation and persistence. Efforts to quantify short-term repeatability of cognitive performance have gone some way to address this, but crucially the long-term repeatability of cognitive performance has been largely overlooked.

Chemokine redundancy versus specificity in the context of CXCR3 and its ligands.

In a recent article published in Immunology & Cell Biology, Dalit et al. describe how correcting mutations in the C57BL/6 mouse strain can restore production of the chemokine CXCL11, although surprisingly, this expression of CXCL11 had little effect on B and T cells and the innate immune response to infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus or influenza virus.

Kidnapping intergroup young: an alternative strategy to maintain group size in the group-living pied babbler ().

Both inter- and intragroup interactions can be important influences on behaviour, yet to date most research focuses on intragroup interactions. Here, we describe a hitherto relatively unknown behaviour that results from intergroup interaction in the cooperative breeding pied babbler: kidnapping. Kidnapping can result in the permanent removal of young from their natal group.

Role of extracellular matrix proteoglycans in immune cell recruitment.

Leucocyte recruitment is a critical component of the immune response and is central to our ability to fight infection. Paradoxically, leucocyte recruitment is also a central component of inflammatory-based diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis and cancer. The role of the extracellular matrix, in particular proteoglycans, in this process has been largely overlooked.

Kinship, dear enemies, and costly combat: The effects of relatedness on territorial overlap and aggression in a cooperative breeder.

Many species maintain territories, but the degree of overlap between territories and the level of aggression displayed in territorial conflicts can vary widely, even within species. Greater territorial overlap may occur when neighboring territory holders are close relatives. Animals may also differentiate neighbors from strangers, with more familiar neighbors eliciting less-aggressive responses during territorial conflicts (the "dear enemy" effect).

Dehydration risk is associated with reduced nest attendance and hatching success in a cooperatively breeding bird, the southern pied babbler .

High air temperatures have measurable negative impacts on reproduction in wild animal populations, including during incubation in birds. Understanding the mechanisms driving these impacts requires comprehensive knowledge of animal physiology and behaviour under natural conditions. We used a novel combination of a non-invasive doubly labelled water (DLW) technique, nest temperature data and field-based behaviour observations to test effects of temperature, rainfall and group size on physiology and behaviour during incubation in southern pied babblers , a cooperatively breeding passerine endemic to the arid savanna regions of southern Africa.