Animal Creativity and Innovation

How do parrots learn human words, how do apes create new tools, and how do animals devise new behaviors to survive in a changing environment? The answer to these questions and more can found in the field of nonhuman creativity. This closing chapter provides insight into the inner workings of the field through synthesizing the information provided by the researchers featured in this book by placing their work in the broader context of animal creativity. We discuss how the collaborative effort of multiple fields, from human creativity, psychology, biology, ecology, and animal training can all offer valuable insights. We discuss what is known of creativity as an adaptive process in animals, examples of mechanism like social learning and generativity that facilitate creativity, difficulties found in the study of animal creativity, and interdisciplinary collaborations that have yielded answers. Our conclusions are that although much work has been done for nonhuman creativity, it is an expanding field with a vast potential for future research; it will continue to play a greater role in our understanding of animals and the natural world.