Video: Clever lizard unblocks hole to get food

Clever lizards have worked out how to unplug holes to reach food, suggesting that problem-solving is not the sole preserve of warm-blooded birds and mammals.

Anolis evermanni lives in trees in Puerto Rico. Manuel Leal and Brian Powell of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, captured six and presented them with a platform containing two holes, one sealed with a plain disc and hiding a food reward, the other sealed with a patterned disc and empty. The lizards quickly learned to lever or pull the plain disc out of the way to reach the food.

However, the lizards were slow to adapt when the food was placed beneath the patterned disc instead, points out Alex Kacelnik of the University of Oxford. That suggests they are not as flexible as crows or primates.

Journal reference: Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0480