It’s been a while since the last update, but that’s not to say that we haven’t been hard at work! The robin/toutouwai breeding season is well underway and this year we’ve also begun to look beyond the sanctuary fence, to try and understand what might be limiting the toutouwai’s survival. Meanwhile, we’ve been developing a new research project with kākā (watch this space…).

However, this year I also took time to reflect and focus on writing a review together with Martin Schmelz. Our paper, ‘Cognitive test batteries in animal cognition research: evaluating the past, present and future of comparative psychometrics’, was recently published in Animal Cognition. In it, we examine the various pitfalls and possibilities that lie ahead for non-human cognitive test battery research. (As an added bonus, it also includes discussion of the relationship between reproductive success and cognitive test battery performance in wild male North Island robins)

There’s already some exciting things happening in this rapidly growing field, but there is still a lot of room for improving how we design, implement and analyse non-human test batteries. We hope that our review will be a useful resource for anyone who is undertaking non-human cognitive test battery research.