| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
19 May 2006 01:39:18 AM |
| Object: |
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
It's getting harder and harder to talk about 'dumb' animals.
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Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science CorrespondentThu May 18, 10:47 PM ET
Apes that remember to carry the right tools to retrieve treats and scrub
jays that hide food a second time when they think a rival is watching
prove animals can think ahead -- a trait once believed to be uniquely
human, scientists have found.
Two carefully planned sets of experiments to be published on Friday in
the journal Science show intelligent birds and great apes can plan into
the future in a way that transcends simple food caching, as squirrels,
foxes and other animals do.
"Planning for future needs is not uniquely human," Thomas Suddendorf of
the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, wrote in a
commentary.
"Apes and jays can also anticipate future needs by remembering past
events, contradicting the notion that such cognitive behavior only
emerged in hominids."
In one experiment, Nicholas Mulcahy and Josep Call of the Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, tested
bonobos, close relatives of chimpanzees, and orangutans at the local zoo.
They set up several experiments that required the apes to remember a
complex way to retrieve a treat and offered them the opportunity to use
tools to do so.
So far, observations of tool use and planning have involved only
immediate hunger on the part of the animals, which does not involve
long-term thinking, Mulcahy and Call argued.
"Thus, when chimpanzees transport stones to use them to crack open nuts,
or New Caledonian crows make hook-shaped tools to fish for insects, they
do so in an attempt to satisfy their current hunger state, not some
future one," they wrote.
In one experiment, they rigged up a metal cylinder with a piece of
uncooked spaghetti holding two bunches of grapes.
"To obtain the reward subjects had to break the spaghetti by inserting a
plastic tube through the top hole over the cylinder. That caused the
grapes to fall down and hang in front of the bottom holes thus allowing
subjects access to them," the researchers wrote.
In another test, the apes had to use a metal hook to fish out a bottle
of grape juice.
To pass the tests, the apes had to remember to bring the right tool out
of the room with them, and bring it back with them some time later. Both
orangutans and bonobos passed the tests several times, the researchers
said.
'NOT A UNIQUELY HUMAN ABILITY'
"Together with recent evidence from scrub jays, our results suggest that
future planning is not a uniquely human ability, thus contradicting the
notion that it emerged in hominids only within the past 2.5 to 1.6
million years," Mulcahy and Call wrote.
Joanna Dally of the University of Cambridge in Britain and colleagues
tested captive scrub jays, and saw the birds could remember which other
birds were watching them when they first hid some treats.
If a bird dominant to the jays saw them store their food, the jays would
move the cache later when the dominant bird was not watching.
But if the bird allowed to watch the treat being hidden was subordinate,
or a mate, the jays did not later re-cache their food -- presumably
because they could fight off subordinates that try to steal their food,
the researchers wrote.
"These results suggest scrub-jays remember who observed them make
specific caches," Dally's team wrote.
Jays are members of a group of birds called corvids, which include
crows, jays and ravens and which biologists consider to be the most
intelligent species of bird.
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http://tinyurl.com/zffk2
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
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| User: "Walter Bushell" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
20 May 2006 08:10:22 PM |
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In article <jhachmann-41701E.23391818052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
Not, politicians, unfortunately.
--
Guns don't kill people; automobiles kill people.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
21 May 2006 12:17:49 AM |
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In article <proto-347F2F.21102220052006@reader1.panix.com>,
Walter Bushell <proto@panix.com> wrote:
In article <jhachmann-41701E.23391818052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
Not, politicians, unfortunately.
Next time, I'll vote for a chimp. Couldn't do worse.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
.
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| User: "Walter Bushell" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
23 May 2006 01:02:12 PM |
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In article <jhachmann-AEA820.22174920052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
In article <proto-347F2F.21102220052006@reader1.panix.com>,
Walter Bushell <proto@panix.com> wrote:
In article <jhachmann-41701E.23391818052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
Not, politicians, unfortunately.
Next time, I'll vote for a chimp. Couldn't do worse.
I think it better to vote bonobo.
--
"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any
charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his
peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totali-
tarian government whether Nazi or Communist." -- W. Churchill, Nov 21, 1943
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| User: "Mike Painter" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
23 May 2006 11:25:14 PM |
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Walter Bushell wrote:
In article <jhachmann-AEA820.22174920052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
In article <proto-347F2F.21102220052006@reader1.panix.com>,
Walter Bushell <proto@panix.com> wrote:
In article <jhachmann-41701E.23391818052006@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com> wrote:
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
Not, politicians, unfortunately.
Next time, I'll vote for a chimp. Couldn't do worse.
I think it better to vote bonobo.
Absolutely. Make love, not war is a way of life for them.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
20 May 2006 09:33:18 PM |
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On Thu, 18 May 2006 23:39:18 -0700, johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com>
wrote in alt.atheism
It's getting harder and harder to talk about 'dumb' animals.
They're smarter than theists.
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
[]
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show |
21 May 2006 12:16:38 AM |
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In article <gakv62dedbm9ubbipefubc2iedt5rrosg6@4ax.com>,
stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:
On Thu, 18 May 2006 23:39:18 -0700, johac <jhachmann@sbcglobal.com>
wrote in alt.atheism
It's getting harder and harder to talk about 'dumb' animals.
They're smarter than theists.
And BushCo.
Some apes, birds can think ahead, studies show
[]
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
Contact - Throw a .net over the .com
.
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