A battle of wits between Man and Crow in Japan

Crows can be pretty be smart. Japan is currently wrestling with an burgeoning crow population, who have been increasingly causing blackouts by shorting out transmission wires with their nests.

Still, the crows have proven clever at foiling human efforts to control them. In Kagoshima, they are even trying to outsmart the Crow Patrol. The birds have begun building dummy nests as decoys to draw patrol members away from their real nests.

.... “Japanese react to crows because we fear them,” said Michio Matsuda, a board member of the Wild Bird Society of Japan and author of books on crows. “We are not sure sometimes who is smarter, us or the crows.”

Unfortunately, because of their inability to control the population, cities have been turning to lethal means of control.

source

Animal laughter

BBC reports that Professor Jaak Panksepp have discovered that animals other than humans exhibit play sounds that resemble human laughs. His findings are published in the journal, Science, and can be found here.

The article even cites Panksepp speculating about higher cognitive function like humour:

"Although no one has investigated the possibility of rat humour, if it exists, it is likely to be heavily laced with slapstick."

I can't tell if he was dead serious or joking with the reporter.

link

Theory of Mind: Rhesus monkeys

Another articles that advances the Theory of Mind of animals. In this case, Rhesus monkeys. Researchers, Jonathan Flombaum and Dr. Laurie Santos, both from Yale University, found that rhesus monkeys "consider whether a competitor can or cannot see them when trying to steal food". Possessing this working model of another individual's mind is called Theory of Mind, and it's generally considered to be the an unique trait of man.

link

Animal Cognition: Birds are smart

Another neat animals-are-smarter-than-we-thought article from the San Francisco Chronicle. A scientific group has recently published its findings on avian cognition using comparative brain structure (with brain imaging, genetic analysis, and neural pathway analysis) and cool behaviorial experiments of birds' problem solving ability. Turns out birds have complex brain structure, can fashion and modify tools (in more sophisticated ways than the chimp), and recognize the difference between impressionist and abstract paintings. Birds are pretty smart animals....

In experiments by Alex Weir and his colleagues at Oxford University, a captive New Caledonian crow named Betty was frustrated when she couldn't use a bit of straight wire -- which she'd never seen before the start of the experiment -- to snag food from a tiny bucket. Pausing for an instant after an unsuccessful try, she took the wire, bent it around the edge of the food tub, and then snagged the bucket handle with the hook she had fashioned herself.

See the movie here.

link to the Chronicle article

Animal Cognition:Prairie Dog Language

Another neat animals-are-smarter-than-we-thought article from the Associated Press. Scientist research unveils the complexity of Prairie Dog language. link