Pronita Mehrotra 
Creativity has become one of the most desired skills in the 21st century. It is envisioned to be the answer to rapid automation that is taking away routine jobs and the essential ingredient for solving complex global problems we currently face. As a uniquely human trait, creativity has allowed us to adapt and thrive as a species so far and can potentially do so in the future.
But is creativity really unique to humans, or do other species show any evidence of creativity?
Understanding how creativity evolved in other animals can help us better understand our own creative abilities. Recent research suggests that creativity is a spectrum, with other animal species showing rudimentary forms of creativity.
Can Animals Be Creative?
Yes. Researchers who study animal behavior describe many species as capable of creativity in a limited but real sense: producing a new behavior or a new solution that works. Animal creativity is usually studied under the name “innovation.” One widely cited definition, from a 2007 paper in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, describes innovation as the process that generates in an individual a novel learned behavior that is not simply a consequence of social learning or environmental induction (Ramsey, Bastian and van Schaik, 2007). In other words, the animal works out something new for itself rather than copying it from others or responding automatically to its surroundings.
The model described in this article, from Kaufman and colleagues, treats creativity in nonhuman animals as a three-level spectrum: recognizing and seeking novelty, observational learning, and, at the top, innovation, which can include creating a tool or producing a behavior that is new and different (Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2011). Researchers are careful about one limit: an animal solving a problem in a new way does not prove that it understands or plans its solution the way a person might. In the study of the New Caledonian crow described below, the researchers concluded that the bird’s behavior was consistent with partial understanding of the task but that its level of understanding could not yet be gauged (Animal Cognition, 2006).
Animal Creativity Spectrum
According to one model, creativity is a spectrum that starts with novelty recognition and seeking, then observational learning, and finally progresses to innovation.
Novelty Recognition
At the most basic level, an animal has to be able to assess its environment and recognize if there is anything novel or different in the environment. How an animal responds once they detect novelty can lead to either neophobia or neophilia. In an interesting experiment with orangutans, researchers discovered the “captivity effect” concerning creativity. They presented a set of novel objects to both wild orangutans and captive orangutans in zoos.
They found that captive orangutans were more willing to explore novel objects than their wild peers, who exhibited high levels of neophobia. In captive environments, orangutans are more frequently exposed to novel items that turn out to be pleasurable (e.g., treats hidden in toys),. Over time, they built positive associations towards novelty. They also build more trust with their human caretakers and are more willing to explore objects handed to them by humans. In contrast, wild orangutans view novelty with suspicion and are significantly less willing to take risks.
Novelty Seeking
Beyond the ability to recognize novelty in the environment is the desire to seek novelty, which requires some risk-taking. For example, male bowerbirds are known for their novel courtship dances. The success of their courtship ritual depends on the intensity and attractiveness of the display. However, too much novelty can deter females, so male bowerbirds adjust their dance based on the reactions they get. By reducing the level of novelty when needed, the bowerbirds can increase their chances of mating. This ability to modulate the level of novelty is essential for creativity, as the novel outcome also needs to be useful to be creative.
Observational Learning
The first two stages of the creativity spectrum deal with creativity at an individual level, but this third stage allows creativity to spread from an individual to a larger group. When animals can copy one another, they learn and adapt faster to their environment. In a study of capuchin monkeys, researchers found that younger monkeys are less adept at using stones to crack nuts spent more time observing more proficient monkeys. This social learning ability allows the younger capuchin monkeys to get better at scrounging faster than discovering techniques themselves.
Innovation
The highest level of creativity is creating a novel product to solve a problem. An example is animal tool creation or modification to access food more readily. New Caledonian crows are highly intelligent and known for their sophisticated tool use. In one experiment, researchers presented a crow with a setup containing food and an aluminum strip that needed to be bent or unbent to get to the food source. In four of five trials, the bird successfully modified the tool and got its reward.
Which Animals Are the Most Creative?
Creative animals identified by research tend to be species with relatively large brains and flexible diets, and the best-documented examples come from birds and primates.
- New Caledonian crows. In a 2002 report in Science, Oxford researchers described a captive crow, Betty, spontaneously bending wire and using it as a hook to get food (Weir, Chappell and Kacelnik, 2002). In the follow-up experiments cited above, she quickly developed new ways to bend the material and correctly unbent it on four of five trials when unbending was required (Weir and Kacelnik, 2006). Wild New Caledonian crows also make hook tools from pandanus leaves (Hunt, 2000).
- Goffin’s cockatoos. A captive Goffin’s cockatoo named Figaro, from a species not known to use tools in the wild, was observed biting long splinters out of a wooden beam and using them to rake in food. The researchers reported that he made new tools nearly every time a nut was placed out of reach (ScienceDaily, November 5, 2012; Current Biology, 2012).
- Primates. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences compared 533 reported instances of innovation, 445 observations of social learning and 607 episodes of tool use across primate species, and found that innovation, social learning and tool use were more frequent in species with larger “executive” brain volumes (Reader and Laland, 2002). The orangutans and capuchin monkeys discussed above are examples.
- Birds more broadly. Researchers at McGill University counted reports of new feeding behaviors in ornithology journals and found that the rate of feeding innovation across bird groups was best predicted by the relative size of a forebrain region involved in integrating information (Timmermans and colleagues, 2000).
- Dolphins. In a 1969 study titled “The creative porpoise,” trainers rewarded two rough-toothed dolphins only for behaviors they had not shown before. The animals began producing new responses, some not previously known in the species, and in one session produced four new types of response (Pryor, Haag and O’Reilly, 1969).
- Bowerbirds. Male satin bowerbirds do not always court at full intensity. In a field experiment using robotic females, successful males adjusted their displays in response to signals from the female (Patricelli and colleagues, Nature, 2002), the kind of adjustment this article describes under novelty seeking.
Lessons From Animal Creativity
Rudimentary creativity skills demonstrated by different animal species give us clues about our creativity. Here are three lessons from the animal world that apply to human creativity as well:
Psychological Safety
While we no longer live in the wild like orangutans, we still need safety to be fully creative. A psychologically safe environment makes it easier for people to explore and share ideas with others. In other words, safe environments move us towards neophilia, whereas in unsafe ones, we tend to shut down.
Openness to Experience
The novelty-seeking behavior is similar to the “openness to experience” trait. People who are more open to new experiences tend to be more creative than others. But like bowerbirds, this novelty-seeking needs to be balanced, as too much of it can be risky.
Social Learning
We learn more from others than we do from individual exploration. Most innovation around us is incremental – it builds upon other existing ideas. Our ability to learn from others and our ability to imagine different scenarios has allowed us to innovate at much larger scales than other species.
While most people consider creativity, a uniquely human trait, evidence from nonhuman animals suggests otherwise. Creativity evolved to help us better adapt and survive in our environments, and elements of it abound in the animal world. Given today’s daunting challenges that threaten our survival, we need creativity and innovation more than ever.
How Teachers Can Use Animal Creativity in Lessons
Animal creativity gives teachers a concrete way to discuss what creativity is, because the evidence is observable behavior rather than opinion. It fits science, psychology and general creativity lessons.
- Define the terms with students. Ask students to decide what would count as a creative act by an animal, then compare their definition with the researchers’ definition of innovation above. The discussion shows that creativity needs both novelty and usefulness, a point the article makes with the bowerbird example.
- Read a study as evidence. Older students can read a short abstract, such as the crow or cockatoo study, and identify what was tested, what the animal did and what the researchers did and did not conclude. This builds the habit of separating an observation from an interpretation.
- Use the three levels as a creativity scaffold. The spectrum in this article, from noticing something new to learning from others to innovating, maps onto a classroom design task: students observe a problem, study how others have approached it, then build their own solution.
- Connect to classroom climate. The orangutan study suggests that experience with novelty that turns out well, and trust in caretakers, make exploration more likely. Teachers can draw the same lesson for students: a classroom where wrong answers are safe encourages students to try new ideas, as the section on psychological safety above explains.
- Design a fair test. Younger students can design a simple, humane observation, such as watching how birds at a feeder respond to a new feeder shape, and record what changes over several days.
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