SPATIAL MEMORY OF HOMING PIGEONS, COLUMBA-LIVIA, TESTED IN AN OUTDOORAVIARY

Five homing pigeons were trained to dig up hidden seeds buried in one of eight sand-filled cups in an octagonal aviary. All birds located th e correct cup with an accuracy well above chance, irrespective of whet her the retention time was between 15 min and 2 1/2 h, or whether it w as between 1 d and 4 d. Even after 10 mo, the birds remembered the cor rect cup with great accuracy. This indicates well-developed spatial me mory capacities of long duration. The method used in this study, based on training pigeons to dig for hidden seeds in combination with an ar bitrary standard task, seems highly suitable to test pigeons for their spatial abilities.