Geniuses everywhere

I’ve recently seen two programs on TV, “Ape Genius” and “Dog Genius” that examine animal intelligence and compare it with human capabilities. 

Check out this National Geographic video about a dog and his peculiar habits.

An article in Animal Cognition details and experiment conducted at the University of Vienna to investigate the performance of different species

 The ability to reason by exclusion (which is defined as the selection of the correct alternative by logically excluding other potential alternatives; Call in Anim Cogn 9:393–403 2006) is well established in humans. Several studies have found it to be present in some nonhuman species as well, whereas it seems to be somewhat limited or even absent in others. As inconsistent methodology might have contributed to the revealed inter-species differences, we examined reasoning by exclusion in pigeons (n = 6), dogs (n = 6), students (n = 6), and children (n = 8) under almost equal experimental conditions. After being trained in a computer-controlled two-choice procedure to discriminate between four positive (S+) and four negative (S?) photographs, the subjects were tested with displays consisting of one S? and one of four novel stimuli (S?). One pigeon, half of the dogs and almost all humans preferred S? over S?, thereby choosing either by novelty, or by avoiding S? without acquiring any knowledge about S?, or by inferring positive class membership of S? by excluding S?. To decide among these strategies the subjects that showed a preference for S? were then tested with displays consisting of one of the S? and one of four novel stimuli (S??). Although the pigeon preferentially chose the S?? and by novelty, dogs and humans maintained their preference for S?, thereby showing evidence of reasoning by exclusion. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that none of the pigeons, but half of the dogs and almost all humans inferred positive class membership of S? by logically excluding S?.

Man vs Ape - social complexities

An interview with Rebecca Saxe, a cognitive scientist at MIT, sheds light on   humans’ unique ability to teach and interest passing along cultural knowledge and how it compares with other social animals.

Q: Is it true that there might be a brain region dedicated to this coordinating of two minds?

Saxe: Well, what we do know is that there are definitely regions in the human brain that seem to play special roles in social cognition—in seeing and thinking about other people. And different parts of your brain get involved in coordinating and reasoning about different kinds of social tasks. It appears that this kind of cooperation recruits a very specific part of your brain, right behind the middle of your forehead.

In the last five years, there’s been a huge explosion of research with new tools, new imaging tools, that make it possible to study the living, thinking human brain. And that’s allowed us to study the brain basis of all kinds of things that are uniquely human.

Bonobo whisperer

A video on NOVA’s website tells the story of Kanzi, a bonobo who learned and understands English without ever being directly taught language skills. The  27 year-old bonobo communicates with researchers at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa using lexigrams, or symbols representing words.

If there were a superstar within the bonobo community, Kanzi, which means “treasure” in Swahili, would certainly be it. Born in 1980, Kanzi came to Georgia State University’s Language Research Center at the age of six months. He is regarded as the first ape to demonstrate real comprehension of spoken speech.

Kanzi has been presented with a variety of carefully controlled tests which demonstrate his comprehension of speech. In these tests, spoken words are presented through headphones and Kanzi is requested to indicate the real object, the photo or the lexigram that the word represents. He is essentially 100 percent accurate on all words that are a part of vocabulary at any given age. Today, his vocabulary includes more than 500 words! His comprehension of spoken language is at least equivalent to that of a two-and-a-half-year-old child.

Kanzi’s achievements are not limited to language, but include tool use and tool manufacturing. Kanzi has shown skills as a stone tool maker and he is very proud of his ability to flake Oldowan style cutting knives. He learned to do this from Dr. Nick Toth, an anthropologist with The Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, IN. Kanzi’s stone knives are very sharp and he’s able to cut hide and thick ropes with them. He has also demonstrated his unspecified and musical skills, having played with Sir Paul McCartney and Peter Gabriel.

Neuroscience

image courtesy of AJ Gazman

Using animal examples is a great way to explain biology and other scientific principles to children.  Elephants seem to be especially captivating to children, perhaps due to their gigantic size or unique anatomy. 

A little series published by the University of Washington “Neuroscience for Kids” uses findings from a recent study that suggest elephants are able to distinguish between different ethnic groups in Kenya as a way to introduce neuroscience and includes some other interesting facts.

The total surface area of the African elephant cerebral cortex is 6,300 square cm. The surface area of the human cerebral cortex is 2,500 square cm

Cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres in the brain that controls conscious experience and is responsible for perception, emotion, thought, and planning.

Novel ways elephants communicate

photo courtesy of  Greg George

It is believed that elephants use low frequency signals transmitted through the ground as a means of communication.  A current theory is that elephants are able to sense the vibrations through pressure-sensitive nerve endings, Pacinian corpuscles, in their feet and —Meissner’s corpuscles that detect infrasonic vibrations - in the tip of their trunks.

 Scientists Katy Payne, Joyce Poole and their colleagues discovered that elephants emit a variety of infrasounds—calls too low in pitch to be heard by most humans. In 1989, Payne and her colleagues conducted a landmark experiment at a waterhole in Etosha demonstrating that these powerful infrasonic rumbles contain specific messages that can be heard and understood by other elephants more than 2 miles away.

This article contains information on the progression of seismic communication research in elephants and evidence supporting the idea that elephants use low frequency signals to communicate a variety of information from predator warnings to reproductive cues.

Radio program highlights animal intelligence

You may be surprised to learn how smart those birds at your backyard bird-feeder are.

On the next Calling All Pets, find out of being called a “Bird Brain” isn’t such a bad thing. Join Larry Meiller and zoologist Patricia McConnell as they explore the topic of intelligence in ravens and also welcome a guest to talk about the seductive mating rituals of animals in the high seas!

This post on scienceblogs.com explores the research of Bernd Heinrich from a recent article in Scientific American.  Heinrich designed experiments to test ravens’ ability to solve problems, investigating whether behaviors were motivated by logic or instinct.  Results suggested that they do, in fact, use logic.

Amazing sea creatures

Click here to watch a visually stunning video about bioluminescent fish and cephalopods (squids, octopus) hosted by oceanographer David Gallo.

Certain underwater animals can respond to changes or threats in their environment by changing their appearance, a behavior that is useful for camouflaging, warding off predators or attracting a mate.

One of the most fascinating examples are deep-sea animals who live an environment with minimal light yet have adapted behaviors that capitalize on their ability to mimic different wavelengths of light.

An article, “Bioluminescent and Red-Fluorescent Lures in a Deep-Sea Siphonophore,” in the journal Science discusses the biology of bioluminescence and research that can provide a better understanding of how light (or lack there of) affects marine ecology.

Some great background information about bioluminescence can be found on this Web site

Bioluminescence has evolved many times in the sea as evidenced by the several distinct chemical mechanisms by which light is emitted, and the large number of only distantly related taxonomic groups that have many bioluminescent memberss.

Experts on polar bears

I found some interesting commentary and numbers that really get to the heart of the looming threat of global warming and its impact on polar bears.  Full article can be found on BBC News Web site.

• Scientists say Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of up to 9% per decade
• Arctic summers could be ice-free by mid-century
• Dr Andrew Derocher, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, has used the data to assess the impact on the Arctic’s top predator - he believes the polar bear could disappear in the wild by the end of the century unless the pace of global warming slows.
• British polar expert Dr Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge says the bear faces a gloomy future unless it is able to change its habits: “It could be that a polar bear could adapt to a new habitat and adopt habits like the brown bear in Alaska which hunts salmon in streams and other small animals on land,” he said.
• Lynn Rosentrater, climate scientist in the WWF International Arctic Programme, thinks that is unlikely to happen.
• Polar bears are currently found in Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway.
• Populations in southern limits such as Hudson Bay are at most risk of dying out.

Polar Bear Info

One of the most interesting things about the polar bears is that although they appear white, their fur is actually translucent and the skin below is black to absorb heat from the sun.

Polar bears eat seals, walruses, narwhals, fish, birds, berries, and many other foods.  They are carnivorous and need to eat about 4 lbs of meat daily to maintain their weight.

Mothers nurse their cubs for a long time, sometimes more than two years.

They have partially webbed front paws making them better swimmers capable of swimming long distances

Only female polar bears hibernate, and unlike other hibernators, polar bears give birth during hibernating, usually to two cubs.

These facts and more can be found on SeaWorld’s Web site.

Bald Eagles

Photograph by Michael Melford

According to Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, “The Chilkat Valley in Haines is the site for the world’s largest annual gathering of bald eagles. Every autumn, up to 3,000 or more eagles fill the trees and river flats to feast on a late run of Chilkat River chum salmon. With a wing span of 6-8 feet, bald eagles mate for life and can live to be 40 years old. With a year-round resident bald eagle population of 200-400, the area is known as the “Valley of the Eagles.”

In June of 2007 the American bald eagle was removed from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants, it remains protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The eagle population in southeastern Alaska rely on large supply of salmon.  One reason to look critically at the proposals for building roads and permitting logging in the Tongass forest is to balance economic interests of the communities without threatening eagles or salmon habitats.