Posted on 11/11/2006 5:04:21 AM PST by bannie
Back in 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ's unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot. Ever since then, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass.
But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn't seem like a dimwit. When a buzzer sounds, the speed bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats.
Hugh is no manatee prodigy. Such sensory experiments, along with other recent studies, are revealing that sea cows aren't so stupid after all.
Researchers contend that if the plant-eating beasts seem slow-witted, it is because they faced no threats to their survival before the advent of boat propellers. ... At least 75 manatees have been killed this year in collisions with watercraft, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ... Scientists have long assumed brains with many folds _ such as those belonging to dolphins and humans _ are a sign of intelligence. But Reep argues the cause behind those brain folds is unknown, and smooth- brained manatees don't seem to be missing anything important.
"The brain looks just as complex internally as any other mammalian brain," said Reep, co-author with Bob Bonde, a Florida biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, of a book on manatee physiology.
Hugh and his half-brother Buffett, both born in captivity, have spent many days since 1998 showing researchers what they can learn. The manatees have been trained to respond to whistles and stop at underwater targets.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I think we've already PUNished him a-plenty.
:-)8
8;-)
Dick Liethen lives on Troll Hill Road.
Need I say more?
*sigh* Wrong thread...
O the Hugh Manatee Ping
Doncha' hate when that "wrong thread" thing happens?
;-)
Yeah.
I actually had a Manatee drink fresh water out of a hose I was using to wash down my boat.
The hose was in the water ,the Manatee grabbed it in his mouth and tried to pull it out of my hands, couldn't see what it was started pulling on it and up came a giant Manatee with my hose in its mouth.
It certainly was no dummy.
They are probably closely related to cetaceans.
Is this a joke? I would bet you could train cockroaches to do this. Or even Muslims.
...and, apparently, so can a manatee!
...and, apparently, this is news to the writer.
I just posted it because his name is HUGH!
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