Pilot study in Haidlhof

Jorg Massen, senior post-doc (Vienna) and Mathias

The new project "The social intelligence hypothesis and the role of episodic memory" is a collaboration with Thomas Bugnyar at the University of Vienna (Department of Cognitive Biology), and this week we are at the research station at Haidlhof to be part of the project's pilot study.

Designing experimental set-ups for intelligent animals is not an armchair business, which is the reason why it is important to do a pilot study. A pilot study helps to decide on practical matters that no one could foresee in theory, and makes the set-up of the real study more solid and more likely to succeed.

Discussing practicalities with master student Jana Müller and co-workers.

The research station in Haidlhof served as a model when be designed our own research facility, and houses four breeding pairs and a big juvenile group at the moment.

One of the big aviaries with juvenile ravens.

The facility also houses the biggest captive population of keas - meat eating parrots, native to New Zeeland. Read more about the kea lab.

//Helena