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Jays travel in time
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Joe
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Jays travel in time
Here's a short article from New Scientist which I saw on their website. I thought it might be an interesting read.
We're all time travellers, in the sense that we can recall memories and plan for the future. Mental time travel is considered by many to be unique to humans; animals were assumed to be "stuck in time", but now that idea has been challenged... by a bird.
Western scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica) store food in caches, but as with other provisioning animals, such as squirrels, it is difficult to tell whether they do so because they are planning for the future or because the are behaving instinctively, as they do when building a nest or migrating. Also they could simply be hungry.
To see if they had a sense of the future, Nicola Clayton and colleagues at the University of Cambridge allowed eight jays to feed during the day for six days, except in the morning, when they were allowed to enter either a compartment where they got breakfast or one where they didn't. On the evening of day 7 the jays were unexpectedly given extra food, and the researchers found they stashed the surplus in the compartment where they had learned they would not get breakfast. This suggests that they do plan for the future - in this case a future without breakfast (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature05575).
This post was last modified: 26-02-2007 09:24 PM by Xeract.
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| 26-02-2007 08:09 PM |
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Xeract
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RE: Jays travel in time
Great read, thanks for the post Joe. I have a subscription to New Scientist but I hadn't seen this article.
I think we often underestimate animals mental powers. If we have only just found that they could plan ahead for the future, what else don't we know?
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| 26-02-2007 09:25 PM |
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Kingfisher
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RE: Jays travel in time
I am learning so much of interest here! I live where Western Scrub Jays are found (and a pair are apparently resident here just a couple of miles from me, as well), so this is quite interesting.
Thanks for the link, Joe.
Kingfisher
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| 27-02-2007 08:06 AM |
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Meerkat
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RE: Jays travel in time
I think we often underestimate animals mental powers. If we have only just found that they could plan ahead for the future, what else don't we know?
I've always taken it for granted that animals do plan for the future. Surely behaviours such as meerkats posting sentries is thinking ahead in case of attack?
I'm sure there are many other examples, but this article seems very obvious to me.
This post was last modified: 28-02-2007 08:36 AM by Kingfisher.
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| 27-02-2007 09:13 PM |
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Jane
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RE: Jays travel in time
Wow, this is amazing, we so underestimate nature. I imagine that there are many trials that would highlight this to us but how do you go about tracking them down?
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| 08-03-2007 08:07 PM |
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Kingfisher
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RE: Jays travel in time
There are so many things being explored today that we never hear about. Sometimes a chance remark will cause me to go take a closer look at something I find interesting, and it opens up new doors. But I don't think anyone can keep up with all the news.
Just this morning I was reading an article about cloning of animals, starting with Dolly--the point being that scientists have discovered that even though these animals have identical genetic makeup, they don't look or act the same, and in this particular case, being cows, they don't produce the same amount of milk. But they should, because they are identical animals!
Here is the article from the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na...ing08.html
It's fascinating.
Kingfisher
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| 08-03-2007 08:15 PM |
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