Posted on 02/21/2007 6:56:40 PM PST by blam
Birds not so stupid after all
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 1:58am GMT 22/02/2007
Birds have emerged as strong challengers to chimpanzees and dolphins for the title of our smartest rivals in the animal world, biologists at Cambridge University have concluded.
Planning and worrying about the future has always been considered an exclusively human activity, but now at least one species of bird has also been found to plan.
"This is the first evidence that an animal can plan for the future," said Prof Nicky Clayton, who led the research team.
According to her findings, published in the journal Nature, western scrub-jays will store food items they believe will be in short supply in the future.
"Clearly the notion of bird-brained is no longer warranted," she said.
Prof Clayton, Prof Tony Dickinson, Caroline Raby and Dean Alexis carried out tests on eight scrub jays every morning, where they denied them their food. The birds were placed in two different compartments on alternate mornings for six days.
In one compartment they were always given breakfast and in the other they were not. After training the birds were unexpectedly given pine nuts suitable for hoarding in the evening.
In anticipation of a morning without breakfast, the scrub-jays consistently hid food in the ''no breakfast" compartment rather than the ''breakfast" compartment, demonstrating an understanding of their future needs. In a similar experiment, the scrub-jays were given either dog food in one compartment or peanuts in a second compartment for breakfast. When they were allowed to store either food where they liked in the evenings, they hoarded peanuts in the dog food compartment and vice versa.
Prof Clayton said: "The western scrub-jays demonstrate behaviour that shows they are concerned both about guarding against food shortages and maximising the variety of their diets in the future. It suggests they have advanced thought processes as they have a sophisticated concept of past, present and future."
What gets me is when the local birds start talking about my family, my homies. They have no right to judge. They're in a stinking nest in a tree. Got ya beat. So there.
I agree, although I'm not so sure about David Crosby.
Big deal. My late cat was always setting himself on a newspaper in a proper relation to the text - never sideways to it, and never upside down. From which it is obvious that he was literate, and not merely literate but even multilingual, in at least three languages. What he was finding in the newspapers, though, remains a mystery.
Well, you'd be surprised what a borrowed liver can do to a bird's intelligence.
Even ants and squirrels do that.
Jiminy Cricket LOL
Now theres a squirrel right there.
Migrating birds have also picked up on our Interstate highway system. You can see them over the highways in spring and fall. It's like they have a Rand McNally Road Atlas hardwired in their tiny little heads.
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Golden Plover migrates from Alaska to Hawaii and back. Not much room for error.
Looks kind of like a doodoo to me.
Don't have to tell me...we have Jays who take the peanuts left out and bury them in flower pots, fields, flower beds, etc. They go back to find them at a latter date. Not so dumb.
LOL!
""This is the first evidence that an animal can plan for the future," said Prof Nicky Clayton, who led the research team."
HUH? What about squirrels that store nuts for winter?
( Well, except the ones in California that tend to play with their nuts rather than store them.)
bump for later reading
I've seen Crows do some pretty amazing things.
I've watched Crows pick up Hickory nuts and Pecans and drop them on roads to crack them open. Pretty cool.
BuWahahahahahahah!!! Hilarious!
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