| 要旨トップ | 本企画の概要 | 日本生態学会第72回全国大会 (2025年3月、札幌) 講演要旨
ESJ72 Abstract


シンポジウム S11-5  (Presentation in Symposium)

Tracking the gaze direction of crows using a motion capture system to investigate avian cognition【B】【O】

*Akihiro ITAHARA(Kyoto Univ.), Fumihiro KANO(University of Konstanz, Max-Planck Institute)

Visual attention movements reflect each animal’s unique strategy for information acquisition. Therefore, it offers valuable insights into their perception and cognition. Previous studies have often inferred a bird's attentional focus from its head movements. However, it remains challenging to do so accurately, as the details of how they orient their visual field toward the visual targets remain largely unclear. Therefore, we investigated visual field configurations and the visual field use in large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos). We employed an established ophthalmoscopic reflex technique to determine visual field configuration, including the angle of optical axes and the extent of eye movement. We then utilized a newly established motion capture system to track the head movements of freely moving crows to examine how they oriented their reconstructed visual fields toward presented objects. When visual targets were moving, the crows predominantly used their binocular visual fields, particularly around the beak-tip projection. When the visual targets stopped moving, crows frequently used non-binocular visual fields, especially in regions corresponding to their optical axes. In these instances, the crows showed a slight preference for their right eye. Overall, the visual field use of crows is clearly predictable. Thus, while untracked eye movements could introduce a degree of uncertainty (typically within 15 degrees), we have demonstrated the feasibility of inferring a crow's attentional focus by 3D head tracking. As a first experiment using this system, we investigated how crows respond to conspecific gaze movement. We conducted a dyadic gaze-following experiment with two crows in the motion-capture room and found that crows did follow a conspecific gaze movement. Our system represents a promising initial step toward establishing gaze tracking methods for studying corvid behavior and cognition.


日本生態学会