Urban noise does not affect cognitive performance in wild-caught Australian magpies

Abstract

Abstract Exposure of wildlife to anthropogenic noise is associated with an array of disruptive effects. Research on this topic has focused on the behavioural and physiological responses of animals to noise, with little work investigating potential links to cognitive function. To fill this gap in our understanding, we explored how environmentally relevant urban noise affected the performance of wild-caught, city-living Australian magpies (Gymnorhina/Cracticus tibicen tyrannica) on a battery of cognitive tasks that included associative and reversal learning, inhibitory control, and spatial memory. Birds were housed and tested in a standardised laboratory environment; sample sizes varied across tasks (n = 7–9 birds). Tests were conducted over four weeks, during which all magpies were exposed to both an urban noise playback and a quiet control. Birds were presented with the entire test battery twice (in each treatment); however, tests were always performed without noise (playback muted during testing). Australian magpies performed similarly in both loud and quiet conditions on all four tasks. We also found that prior experience with the associative learning task had a strong effect on performance, with birds performing better on their second trial. Similar to previous findings on Australian magpies tested on the same tasks in the wild under noisy conditions, we could not find any disruptive effects on cognitive performance in a controlled experimental setting.