City birds healthier, smarter than their country cousins

A McGilldoctoral candidate in biology,Jean-Nicolas Audet,is proud as a peacock that his idea to pit urban bird brains against country ones yielded such surprising results.

He and his fellow researchers, Simon Ducatez and Louis Lefebvre,tested more than 50 Barbados bullfinchescaptured from various parts of the Caribbean island some from urban environments, others from wild areas mostly left untouched.

The urban birds proved to be smarter, bolder and healthier than those in rural areas.

Bird in the city worth 2in the bush

Audetsaidhe was inspired to test the Barbados bullfinchafter being hounded by the birdsat a restaurant terrace in Barbados.

"Barbados bullfinch are always watching and trying to steal your sandwich," Audettold CBC News.

"I was really interested in studying how they develop this way in cities."

The team of threeresearchers spent months at McGill'sBellairs Research Institute inBarbadostestingthe birds' problem-solving abilities and temperament.

They found that the city birds had adapted to become better atproblem solving such as opening drawers to find food.

Not just smarter, healthier too

Audetbelieved the tradeoff would be that city birds would have compromised immune systems.

"We assumed that you can't be good at everything," Audet said.

But the city birds proved first in the pecking order for good health, as well.

Not only were the urban Barbados bullfinches more intelligent, but their immune systems werebetter too.

"The urbanbirdshave it all."

Audet and his team's study is published in the current issue of the Oxford journal Behavioral Ecology.