"It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for - the whole thing - rather than just one or two stars."
-David Attenborough
Questions? Email me, Ronak Sathyanarayana, at ronaks@goanimals.org.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Pigeons are Good at Math?

pigeons do mathPigeons are thought to be dull. We think that they don't know much. Well, our opinions are completely wrong. A new study shows that pigeons can count to nine. The study also shows that they have equivalent skills to primates besides us. Researchers think that this ability is in many birds. To see their ability, they first taught them 1,2,and 3. They gave the pigeons pictures 1,2, or 3 objects. If they completed the task correctly, they would be given a snack. Later they tested them on 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, or 9. They would give 2 numbers and the Pigeon would have to choose the smaller number. Again, the Pigeon succeeds. Scientists thought primates and birds have this ability because of a distant relative. If that was true, many other animals would share the ability. The other way is that these animals learnt it independently. Animals are always getting smarter.

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