Small-clawed otters can learn how to solve puzzles by looking at their friends
Inborn and Aikurushi of, has become a popular zoo in the manual dexterity
Learning strategies and long-term memory in Asian short-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus) data | Zenodo
https://zenodo.org/record/4108703
Puzzled otters learn from each other | EurekAlert! Science News
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/uoe-pol110920.php
Small-clawed otter is an animal that is widely distributed in rivers and swamps in South Asia centered on India and Indonesia. However, according to Alexander Saliberos, who works at the Ecosystem Conservation Center at the University of Exector in the United Kingdom, small-clawed otters are declining in the wild because small fish and crustaceans are being hit by overfishing and pollution. It is said that it is following. Therefore, it is designated as ' Vulnerable Species (VU) ' on the Red List developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) .
Therefore, the research team of Sulliveros and others conducted an 'experiment to solve the puzzle' to find out how the river otter learns how to feed.
The experiment is to have a small-clawed otter take out food from a transparent hemispherical case. Since the transparent case has a hole, the river otter can reach out from the hole, but it is blocked by the plate that separates the hole from the food and cannot be reached.
However, when the river otter rotated the case, the hole moved to the side with food.
The river otter, who learned to rotate the case, successfully got the meatballs for food. I was also watching the situation with my fellow river otter.
When the research team solved the puzzle again a few months after the first experiment, the river otter was able to solve the puzzle 69% faster on average than in the first experiment. This indicates that the river otter has long-term memory.
Furthermore, in a series of experiments, it was confirmed that when one small-clawed otter solves a puzzle, another small-clawed otter who was watching the situation also solves the puzzle quickly. According to the research team, this suggests that ' social learning is occurring among the river otters.'
Regarding this result, Sulliveros said, 'This is the first study to show long-term memory and social learning in river otters, and it may be good news in terms of their adaptability and future survival. The discovery that it is possible to catch new prey in new ways and pass on that knowledge to other individuals seems to be important for species conservation. '
'We previously discovered that Smooth-Coated Otters learn from each other, but this study found that the Small-Clawed Otters learn from each other as well,' said Neeltje Boogert, co-author of the paper. Therefore, in the future, we plan to investigate how the more general group of wild otters inherit important information for survival such as new foods and foreign enemies. '
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