This clever crow seems to be using the lid of a jar to snowboard on the roof. This shows some important elements of animal sentience. We see that the crow has a clear understanding of what to do to achieve his or her aim (snowboarding in this case!), and how to do it. The crow has ability to plan his or her actions, and use a tool (the lid). Last but not least – it shows that birds love to have fun!!
Nov
21
2011
Parrot comes to puppies’ rescue
Sam, an 18-year old African Grey parrot, has helped save the lives of five premature puppies. It is reported that in the middle of the night, Sam flew upstairs to his owner’s bedroom calling “Come on, come on!”, mimicking his owner’s frequent command to her dog, Sally.
In the eight years he had lived at the house, Sam had never before been in the bedroom.
Going downstairs with Sam, the owner looked in the kitchen and found Sally and her newly born premature puppies in distress on the floor.
The story of Sam is remarkable for many reasons! He was aware of the distress of the dogs – animals of a species different to himself. This ‘interspecies awareness’ can be used by animal scientists as an indicator of animal sentience.
The words “come one, come on!” are used to encourage action or a bit more speed from another, and often they imply some urgency. We don’t know in which context Sally’s owner uses these words to her, but the signs are that Sam the parrot chose these words deliberately to get the urgent response needed.
African Grey parrots are well known for their intelligence and quick wit, and here is yet another example of their abilities.
Dr Irene Pepperberg has carried out extensive studies of parrots’ abilities to understand. Reporting on her findings, she notes: “Given the evolutionary distance between birds and mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the evolution of intelligence, the study of comparative intelligence, and the care and maintenance of birds held in captivity in zoos and as companion animals.”
This short film featuring Irene with famous parrots Alex and Griffin gives a very interesting and though-provoking snapshot about these amazing birds.
Sources
Lancashire Telegraph, 8 November 2011. Darwen hero parrot helps saves premature pups’ lives
Pepperberg, I. (2006) Cognitive and communicative abilities of Grey parrots. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100: 77-86
Sep
09
2011
Chimps free at last
This wonderful film clip is of chimpanzees who are being released to the freedom of a sanctuary. Most of them have endured many, many years of confinement in a laboratory.
Most were snatched from the wild as infants, and some bred in a laboratory, and used in medical experiments. Their reactions as they venture into the outside world clearly show that chimps are sentient, emotional beings.
It’s well worth visiting the sanctuary’s website for great photos of the chimps and their individual stories. How fantastic that these chimps finally have a life worth living!
Aug
16
2011
Saving Valentina the whale
Whales are sentient beings
There is growing awareness and understanding of the intelligence, understanding and behaviour of whales. Science shows that whales are sentient beings. This means they can suffer fear, pain and other negative states – but that in good circumstances, they also have the ability to enjoy life.
Saving Valentina
Members of the Great Whale Conservancy sighted a young whale who was so entangled in fishing net that she could not move. If they could not free her, she faced certain death.
It must have been nerve-wracking for all parties as the brave rescuers painstakingly hacked away the imprisoning net with the one small knife they had with them. But eventually, they managed to set the whale free and for an hour afterwards, she gave a dramatic display of leaping and diving in what her rescuers felt it was a show of joy. She must have felt wonderful to have been released from the fatal net and she may well have been trying to attract the attention of the rest of the pod of whales, and perhaps her mother.
They named the youngster Valentina and you can see the wonderful film here.
Divers rescue whale … and whale rescues diver
We’ve previously written about the rescue of a humpback whale who had become fatally entangled in crab lines. But happily, she was spotted and freed by divers. When she had been freed, she swam around in circles and then went up to each diver one by one and nudged them. One of the rescuers is reported as saying: “It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that’s happy to see you … I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience.”
Mila is a beluga whale in China. Brave Mila rescued a diver who had got into difficulties while practising in the pool. Using her sensitive, dolphin-like nose, Mila guided the diver to the surface. One of the staff is quoted as saying: “Mila noticed the problem before we did. She’s a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl owes her her life.”
Sources
The Great Whale Conservancy www.greatwhaleconservancy.org
Broom, D.M. (2011) ‘The science of animal welfare and its relevance to whales’, in the Report of the Whale Welfare and Ethics Workshop (Joint workshop of WSPA and UK govt, 22/23 March 2011)
Simmonds, M. (2006) ‘Into the brains of whales’. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100: 1-2, p103-106
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society www.wdcs.org
Mar
09
2011
Mother hen
Hens with chicks are well known to be protective and caring of their offspring. Not only are hens concerned for their chicks’ safety and well-being, but they feel empathy, described by scientists as “the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another”. Scientists at the University of Bristol, UK, exposed mother hens and their chicks to puffs of air. When the air puff was directed at the hens, they reacted with signs of fear, becoming more alert and preening less, and their eye temperature decreased. When their chicks were exposed to the puffs of air, the hens showed all these signs but in addition, their heart rate increased and they made more clucking calls to their chicks - strong signs of their concern.
Mother hens feel empathy for their chicks
Researcher Jo Edgar said: “We found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of ‘empathy’; the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.”
The researchers used chickens for this study because in commercial farming, as they pointed out, “chickens will regularly encounter other chickens showing signs of pain or distress due to routine husbandry practices or because of the high levels of conditions such as bone fractures or leg disorders.”
Scientists have also found that hens can anticipate future events based on previous experience, and make judgements accordingly; they have over 30 different calls for clear communication with each other; and chicks can count! But these abilities and the sentience of hens and chickens are sadly disregarded in commercial farming conditions. Today’s study on hens and empathy gives yet more weight to the urgent need for more humane farming systems, in which animals can carry out their natural behaviours. Animals are sentient beings, and what happens to them, matters to them.
For information about farm animal welfare and how you can help end factory farming, please visit Compassion in World Farming.
Sources:
The foundations of empathy are found in the chicken. University of Bristol press release, issued 9 March 2011. http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2011/7525.html
‘Avian maternal response to chick distress’, J L Edgar, J C Lowe, E S Paul, C J Nicol, published online ahead of print Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 9 March 2011
Mar
03
2011
Optimism and pessimism in dogs
We all know that some people have a positive ‘glass-half-full’ attitude to life, whereas others are more pessimistic, and now research suggests that the same could be true for dogs.
Professor Mike Mendl, Head of the Animal Welfare and Behaviour research group at Bristol University, who led the research, said: “We all have a tendency to think that our pets and other animals experience emotions similar to our own, but we have no way of knowing directly because emotions are essentially private”. However, his research team was able to develop a new method to study ‘pessimistic’ or ‘optimistic’ decisions in dogs.
Dogs, like humans, can tend to optimism or pessimism
Separation-related behaviour and anxiety
Around half of all pet dogs in the UK will, at some stage of their lives, show separation-related behaviour (SRB) when left alone. SRB can include vocalisation, destructiveness and inappropriate toileting. Many pets are given up for re-homing for performing these undesirable behaviours; however, it is believed that dogs show SRB because they are experiencing feelings of anxiety. The research found that dogs who display high levels of separation-related behaviour also appear to have a more negative underlying mood (affective state) when they are not separated from their owners.
The research
Twenty-four dogs from two UK re-homing centres were used in the study. Firstly, each dog took part in a separation-related behaviour test which was designed to measure his or her response to being left alone. The dogs were taken to a room for 20 minutes where they could interact with one of the researchers. The next day they were taken back to the same room but this time the researcher only interacted with the dog for a few minutes, then left the room. The researchers used video recordings to give each dog a SRB score based on how he or she behaved when alone in the room.
For the second test, the dogs were trained that when a bowl was placed one side of the room (the ‘positive’ position) it would contain a small amount of food, but when placed on the other side (the ‘negative’ position) it would be empty. The bowl was then placed at different locations between the positive and negative positions. Dogs who ran quickly to these ambiguous locations, as if expecting the positive food reward were said to have made an ‘optimistic’ judgement, and others who moved more slowly and were said to have made a ‘pessimistic’ judgement. The dogs who behaved more pessimistically tended to be the ones who also showed higher levels of SRB when left alone for a short time. But should we be surprised by this?
Emotional states influence how dogs approach a situation
Professor Mike Mendl said “We know that people’s emotional states affect their judgements and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs – that a ‘glass-half-full’ dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one with a more ‘pessimistic’ nature.”
This study provides an important insight into dogs’ emotions and suggests that at least some dogs who show separation-related behaviour may have underlying negative emotional states. Owners should be encouraged to seek treatment for these dogs to enhance their welfare rather than give them up for re-homing.
Sources:
Mendl, M., Brooks, J., Basse, C., Burman, O., Paul, E., Blackwell, E. and Casey, R. (2010). Dogs showing separation-related behaviour exhibit a pessimistic cognitive bias. Current Biology 20, 19: 39-40.
e! Science News (2010). Dogs may be pessimistic too [Accessed 19 October 2010].
Dec
20
2010
Bees’ brains are better than computers!
A new study by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London, has found that bees can solve complex mathematical problems which can take a computer many days to work out.
Once a bee has discovered flowers, they will often revisit them. However they do not return to them in a random order, or even the order in which they were found but they can actually work out the shortest route to visit every flower. The bees have effectively solved the “travelling salesman problem” which involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations they have to visit. A computer will work this out by comparing the length of all the possible routes between the different locations and calculating which is shortest.
Dr Nigel Raine, from Royal Holloway’s school of biological sciences, said: “Foraging bees solve travelling salesman problems every day. They visit flowers at multiple locations and, because bees use lots of energy to fly, they find a route which keeps flying to a minimum.”
Scientists discovered this remarkable talent by using computer controlled artificial flowers to test bee behaviour. After investigating the flowers, the bees quickly determined the shortest route to fly between them to save them time and energy. “Despite their tiny brains bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behaviour,” said Raine.
Source:
Guardian.co.uk. Bees’ tiny brains beat computers, study finds. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/bees-route-finding-problems. Sunday 24 October 2010 [Accessed 2 November 2010].
Nov
02
2010
Monkey co-operation and fairness
The 2007 BBC documentary: “Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle”, captures a pair of capuchin monkeys showing very compelling signs of cooperation and a sense of fairness.
In the first experiment the monkeys work together to solve a problem using tools. On one side of a see-through divide is a box of hazelnuts and on the other is the flint which is needed to open the lid of the box. One monkey has the rock but cannot reach the nuts; the other monkey has the box of nuts, but has no way of getting them out without a rock. In an act of teamwork, one monkey offers the rock to the other, who uses it to open the box and get out the nuts. He then fairly shares the nuts equally, three for himself and three for his teammate. They worked together to successfully solve a puzzle that they could never have done alone.
The second experiment also suggests that capuchin monkeys understand fairness. Two monkeys were first trained to hand over a white chip to receive a food reward. When the two monkeys were given unequal rewards, the monkey receiving the less desirable treat would rather refuse the reward and go hungry on principal than accept anything less than an equal reward.
Check out this amazing video clip:
Source:
BBC Two documentary “Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle”, 22 September 2007, 18:30.
Oct
27
2010
Horses can count!
You may have read the earlier blog about ‘Clever Hans’, the horse who was able to answer difficult mathematical questions, not however by working them out himself, but by reading the subtle signals given off his human handlers. Although being able to respond to human signals was an impressive feat in itself, people were disappointed to learn he was not working out the answers himself as they had initially thought. However, new research suggests that although horses may not be able to answer mathematical questions, they can count!
(c) Compassion/Ed Posposil
As reported in the Daily Telegraph, the story of Clever Hans inspired Dr Claudia Uller, of the University of Essex, to investigate whether horses can count.
Dr Claudia Uller and Jennifer Lewis carried out experiments using 57 untrained horses belonging to local private owners and a local riding school. Before the tests, the horses were allowed to nibble a small piece of real apple in to get them interested in the activity. In the experiments, real apples were replaced with fake apples so that the horses would not be influenced by their sense of smell.
In each test, the horses watched plastic apples being dropped out of sight into buckets. In the first test, two plastic apples were placed in one bucket and three in another. The buckets were held up at head level so that horses could choose one. Eleven out of thirteen horses selected the bucket containing three apples, which suggests that the horses understood which bucket had the larger number of apples in it.
The second experiment followed the same pattern, but this time one bucket contained two small apples and the other contained a single large apple with double the surface area. Again the horses chose the bucket with the greater the number of apples – ten out of the twelve horses tested chose the bucket holding the two apples.
The horses were able to keep a tally of how many apples were going into each bucket, and hold this information in their heads before deciding which bucket to investigate. This tendency to opt for containers holding larger numbers of food items has also been seen in non-human primates such as rhesus macaques and lemurs. Baby chicks of only 3 or 4 days old can add and subtract too. Human babies develop this ability at about ten months of age.
Although horses may not be able to count in the same way that humans do, this study demonstrates that they do understand the concept of ‘greater or fewer’, and that horses are certainly more intelligent than people may have previously thought.
More about horses’ abilities, behaviour and welfare
See our blog article on the fascinating report about horses written specially for Compassion by animal welfare consultant Heather Pickett.
Sources
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3338537/Horses-can-count-new-study-says.html
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhojgbaucwid/
Oct
18
2010
The language of dance
Honey bees are social insects that have been shown to co-operate with other individuals in their colony. Worker bees (sterile females) have many duties in the colony. One job of a worker bee is to forage for food. They leave the hive to search for nectar (their source of energy and from which they make honey) and pollen (their source of protein) from flowering plants.
Once a forager has found pollen or nectar they will return to the hive and perform an elaborate dance on the vertical surface of a honey comb. Karl von Frisch discovered that bees use this dance to communicate the location of food to others in their hive. If the food is relatively far from the hive (as it generally is) the bee will perform a “waggle dance” to communicate two items of information – the distance to and the direction of the food source.
A bee that performs a waggle dance moves in a figure of eight. She waggles her body from side to side and emits a buzzing sound as she moves forward in a straight line, then circles to the right, back to her starting point, waggles ahead again, and then circles to the left and waggles again. This pattern is repeated a number of times.
The duration of the straight run, or “waggle,” tells the other bees how far the nectar or pollen is from the hive. As the distance to the food source increases, the duration of the waggle also increases.
The direction in which the dancing bee faces during the straight portion of her waggle dance indicates the location of the food source in relation to the sun. For example, if the flowers are located 30 degrees to the right of the sun, the dance will be oriented 30 degrees to the right of vertical.
The waggle dance acts as a form of language – the other foragers watch the dancing bee’s movements and receive information about how to get to the food source. They also receive information about what is to be found at the food source through their sense of smell.
How a worker bee communicates the location of food source to other bees in the hive may be one of the most complex forms of social behaviour seen outside of the human race.
Here’s a great video about these amazing bees.
Sources:
Frisch, K.V., (1967). The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Gould, J.L., and Gould, C.G., (1988). The Honey Bee. New York: Scientific American Library, W.H. Freeman