Animal Sentience » Hyena http://www.livesofanimals.org Stories about the lives of animals Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:33:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Team Players http://www.livesofanimals.org/2009/11/17/team-players/ http://www.livesofanimals.org/2009/11/17/team-players/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:34:05 +0000 animalslife http://www.livesofanimals.org/?p=490 The ability to co-operate with your companions is believed to show a higher level of thought – and is an ability once thought to be unique to humans. In a recent study hyenas were found to be great team players, with a 100% success rate in a group challenge. They had to work together to reach food from a platform which they couldn’t get to alone. It was even found that when a hyena who had worked out the ‘platform puzzle’ was paired up with one who was new to it, the experienced hyena changed his behaviour – as we would when showing someone a new task.

Team players. Image courtesy of Tim Vickers

Team players. Image courtesy of Tim Vickers

Source:
Drea, C. M., Carter, A. N. (2009)
Co-operative problem solving in a social carnivore
Animal Behaviour, 78: 967-977.

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