http://phys.org/news/2012-10-crows-clever.html
Alex Taylor and his colleagues in New Zealand continue to probe the limits to corvid intelligence. Here they report using an old test of bird intelligence - whether the bird can plan its actions to successfully retrieve food, or whether it simply reacts quickly to a random guess. The birds are presented with a number of strings. Food is attached to some such that pulling on the string will retrieve the food. In others there is a break in the string between bird and food. Do they "case" the problem and select for continuous string? The answer is no.
The full paper is at http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1998?utm_source=royalsociety-org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=journal-news&utm_content=2012-10-24
Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
LAS VEGAS MAN JOINS RANKS OF CHIMPS-AT-HOME IDIOTS
http://www.lasvegasnvblog.com/2012/10/las-vegas-residents-protest-against-one-mans-attempt-to-house-chimps-at-his-home/
In the opening to NOT A CHIMP I preached dire warnings of the possible downside to keeping a chimp at home as a pet - as an alarming number of American households do. Here the residents of an area of Las Vegas are up in arms about a man's attempt to share his domestic bliss with 4 chimps!
In the opening to NOT A CHIMP I preached dire warnings of the possible downside to keeping a chimp at home as a pet - as an alarming number of American households do. Here the residents of an area of Las Vegas are up in arms about a man's attempt to share his domestic bliss with 4 chimps!