Emus have a reputation for being “bird-brained”. In her art, Wendy Binks of Stunned Emu Designs captures that quirky, if vacant, look in their eyes.

But, despite widespread assumptions about emus’ apparent lack of intelligence, very little is truly known about their cognitive abilities.

Coming to the defence of emus and other large, flightless birds, a study has found emus and rheas can innovate – creating new techniques to solve a tricky task to access a food reward.

“A large body of research shows that crows and parrots are effective problem-solvers,” lead author Dr Fay Clark of the University of Bristol in Britain said.

“While scientists have recently taken interest in other birds like gulls and birds of prey, all of these birds belong to the same phylogenetic group, Neognathae.”

Most modern birds – nearly 10,000 species – are neognaths.

“The problem? The more we study the same species repeatedly, the more we create an ‘echo chamber’ of knowledge and create a false impression that other species are less ‘intelligent’,” Clark said.

“But in reality, they haven’t been studied to the same level.”

Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and greater rheas (Rhea americana) are part of the smaller clade of modern birds – Palaeognathae – that evolved flightlessness and gigantism.

Palaeognaths, which also includes ostriches, cassowaries, kiwis, and tinamous, have smaller relative brain sizes compared to other birds.

“The more we study palaeognath birds, the more we can understand the broader picture of bird cognition,” Clark said.

An emu ponders the food puzzle. Photo: Fay Clark

Clark and her colleagues tested the problem-solving abilities of three emus, two greater rheas, and four common ostriches (Struthio camelus) against a new puzzle problem.

It required the birds to line up holes in a plastic wheel, held together by a nut and bolt, to obtain a food reward.

Each was first shown a solved version of the puzzle with the food freely available. Then they were given an unsolved one to complete within half an hour.

The three emus solved the puzzle on their first attempt. They could also solve it again once the puzzle was reset, moving the hole in the most efficient direction towards food 90 per cent of the time.

A male rhea used this technique but also created a second one, rotating the bolt in the middle of the wheel until the task fell apart.

None of the ostriches was able to solve the task.

“We classify palaeognath innovation as low level or simplistic – and it is certainly not as complex as the innovation we see in crows and parrots,” Clark said.

“However, it is still a very important finding. There were no reports of technical innovation in palaeognaths before our study, and there was a prevailing view that they are ‘dumb’ birds.

“Our research suggests that is not true and that technical innovation may have evolved far earlier in birds than previously thought.

And, because palaeognaths birds are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs, Clark said further research might shed light on how they behaved.

This article first appeared in Cosmos. Read the original here