Bird Brain
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I wonder about that, too, if animals know it's the weekend. I think they might notice a change, but can they predict it?
In japan crows use the patterns of the pedestrian crossing traffic lights to crack nuts.
That is they drop the nuts on the road near a crossing. Let the traffic drive over the hard nut till it cracks. Wait till the light is green for the pedestrians. Then go eat the nut.
They didn't start this behaviour at cross roads, but a smart one figured it out and now more are doing it.
New Caledonian crows can solve a 2-tool puzzle in one attempt. Only humans can do that too.
That is they drop the nuts on the road near a crossing. Let the traffic drive over the hard nut till it cracks. Wait till the light is green for the pedestrians. Then go eat the nut.
They didn't start this behaviour at cross roads, but a smart one figured it out and now more are doing it.
New Caledonian crows can solve a 2-tool puzzle in one attempt. Only humans can do that too.
What is a 2-tool puzzle? Or was that it and I failed test? (English languages and my computer being the "two tools")
Bird's brain solves somethings I doubt humans can do as rapidly. Can you imagine the processing of 3D space with a pair of 2D retinal images at a rate required to fly thru a thicket of branches, fine limbs and twigs (Think of a dense forest undergrowth in winter, when coming in or taking off from the ground.)
Bat's brain processes echos much better than that a room full of very advanced computers trying to indentify which type bottom-resting sub the recorded echo came from. (If it is running, not resting, that not hard. Can even identify the hull number from matching to prior records of sound characteristic.) For example at (I forget exactly how far, but on order of 10 meters), a bat can tell which of the echos from many different insects is the taster or injured one. It then adjusts the "chirp" duration and rate etc to provide improved information on its intended meal. (Some insects note this, fold their wings and fall, just before becoming that meal.)
In WWII the German diesel subs would recharge batteries on the surface at night and "hear" the British search plane's radar long before it got a useful echo out of the noise. That signal sub used increased in strength as inverse square of the plane/sub separation and sub confidently continued to recharge if signal was not so getting stronger. When the plane was accidently close enough to get a useful echo (that goes as the inverse fourth power of the separation) the Brits learned to reduce the transmited power (roughly by the inverse cube of the separation so their echo signal continued to grow stronger but the sub's was not growing stronger as rapidly as the inverse square. Often a crash dive when the plane's motors could be heard saved the sub, but not always. This (and radar of course) probably saved England from a successful blockade.
Bat's brain processes echos much better than that a room full of very advanced computers trying to indentify which type bottom-resting sub the recorded echo came from. (If it is running, not resting, that not hard. Can even identify the hull number from matching to prior records of sound characteristic.) For example at (I forget exactly how far, but on order of 10 meters), a bat can tell which of the echos from many different insects is the taster or injured one. It then adjusts the "chirp" duration and rate etc to provide improved information on its intended meal. (Some insects note this, fold their wings and fall, just before becoming that meal.)
In WWII the German diesel subs would recharge batteries on the surface at night and "hear" the British search plane's radar long before it got a useful echo out of the noise. That signal sub used increased in strength as inverse square of the plane/sub separation and sub confidently continued to recharge if signal was not so getting stronger. When the plane was accidently close enough to get a useful echo (that goes as the inverse fourth power of the separation) the Brits learned to reduce the transmited power (roughly by the inverse cube of the separation so their echo signal continued to grow stronger but the sub's was not growing stronger as rapidly as the inverse square. Often a crash dive when the plane's motors could be heard saved the sub, but not always. This (and radar of course) probably saved England from a successful blockade.
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Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
I have suggested that animals that live in a 3D environment develop higher intelligence than related species that don't. The cetaceans are much more intelligent than the artiodactyls they left behind on the land--cattle, goats, giraffes, etc. Seals are as bright as any land-dwelling carnivore. Primates don't fly but swing through the trees and have to think in three dimensions, and they're the smartest of the mammals. (I don't know enough about bats to talk about them.)
As an aviculturist my impression is that in any given ecological niche--e.g., hunter, scavenger, grazer--the bird is often somewhat brighter than the equivalent mammal.
The aquatic ape theory, which pops up here rather regularly, would explain how we became so much smarter than the chimpanzees we left up in the trees.
If I remember correctly there were two sticks of different length (a stick being a tool) which needed to be applied in the proper order.
A video clip of it over here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RpOGYYKdaQ.
A longer article about this over here - http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/clever-new-caledonian-crows-use-one-tool-to-acquire-another/
A longer article about this over here - http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/clever-new-caledonian-crows-use-one-tool-to-acquire-another/
Crows scavenging around the iron mines of Minnesota can tell not only when the weekends are, but when the lunch breaks and shift changes are due.
Gulls and jays in the Boundary Waters wilderness area can recognize the signs of breaking camp, and will begin hanging out nearby in the couple of hours or so before departure.
Owners of parrots can tell many stories of parrots learning the routines and habits and schedules of their owners, and planning accordingly.
Gulls and jays in the Boundary Waters wilderness area can recognize the signs of breaking camp, and will begin hanging out nearby in the couple of hours or so before departure.
Owners of parrots can tell many stories of parrots learning the routines and habits and schedules of their owners, and planning accordingly.