The effects of housing conditions on neurogenesis in the black-capped chickadee

Abstract

Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) store and retrieve thousands of seeds during the fall and winter, seemingly in anticipation of reduced resource availability coinciding with onset of harsh weather, and laboratory experiments have confirmed the necessity of hippocampal integrity in successful performance of this specialized ability. These birds undergo changes in rates of hippocampal neurogenesis throughout the year; however, results from laboratory experiments designed to gain further insight to this phenomenon have been equivocal. We were interested in teasing apart the effects of two factors associated with housing conditions of captive birds: housing size and housing location. We found that birds housed indoors experienced a decrease in neurogenesis compared to those housed outside; however, there was no difference between birds housed in cages compared to those housed in aviaries. Results from this study suggests that a transition from nature to an indoor environment has greater consequences on neurogenesis than does a reduction in space.