Unusual Animal Intelligence - [Magazine article]

(Iflscience.com, 22, October 2013) - Before 1960 most of the work surrounding animal intelligence was centred around behaviour, with famous experiments such as Pavlov’s dogs and Thorndike’s operant conditioning. After 1960, the field began to shift to understand animal cognition and there has been much debate whether animals have an actual consciousness. 

The full extent of what animals think may never be known, but we already have seen amazing intelligence from some unlikely sources.

Crows

Crows are insanely intelligent creatures. They are able to recognize human faces and hold a grudge against the ones they don’t like. In order to study the crows they had to be collected and properly tagged. The scientists who handled the birds quickly fell out of favor with the crows. The next time the researchers entered the enclosure they were greeted by the crows dive bombing and attacking them. If the same researchers came back wearing a mask that the crows hadn’t seen before, they were left alone. It also appears that the crows conspire with one another and share information about which humans they don’t like. Crows who were absent when a particular researcher had handled the other birds would still respond with hostility upon seeing the scientist at a later date.

Their amazing intelligence is not always used to start fights -  they are skilled at using tools in order to retrieve food or solve problems. Crows readily use sticks, rocks, and wires to retrieve food from hidden places. If the proper tool is not at their disposal, they can actually make one to suit the job. What's more, these crows can use tools better than many primates.

Aesop’s “The Crow and the Pitcher” fable describes crows’ ingenuity. A crow wanted a drink of water, but was unable to reach down into the pitcher. Rather than give up, it dropped pebble after pebble into the pitcher until the water rose high enough for it to have a drink. It is a 2600-year-old story of tenacity. Modern scientists have decided to test the fable and found that it was scientifically accurate. 

Dolphins

“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

Dolphins have long been celebrated as some of the most clever animals in the world. Their brains are extremely large for their body size, have a neocortex (where higher function takes place) much more intricate than humans and the region of the brain that is in charge of self awareness is enlarged when compared to other animals. 

Dolphins live in social societies and communication is integral to its success. They do not have vocal cords as humans do, but use a combination of clicks, squeaks, creaks, and buzzes to talk to their fellow cetaceans, though scientists have not been able to discern an actual language yet. Body language is also an important communication tool Dolphin whistles are unique to individuals and are developed in the first month of life.

It was recently discovered that dolphins remember the signature call of their friends, even if they hadn’t seen each other in over 20 years. This might help explain how dolphins can leave and join different pods so easily over the course of their lifetime.

Dolphins are so intelligent that India has recently put a ban on their captivity. India’s Ministry of the Environment and Forests has labeled cetaceans as "non-human persons" and released a statement saying they are not to be captured for entertainment purposes by any person or institution, whether they are public or private.

Pigs

While it might be surprising to some pigs are quite intelligent and many would compare that intellect to be on the same level as dolphins and higher apes. 

Part of this intellect might be because large chunks of pig genome are virtually identical to humans, though our last common ancestor died out 100 million years ago. Pigs love to become couch potatoes and would rather eat, drink, smoke, and watch TV than be active; not unlike many people.

When introduced to a mirror, they were initially fascinated by the pig in the reflection and tried to interact by nudging and vocalizing. While they could see food in the mirror, they tried looking behind the mirror only to end up hungry. The next time the mirror was presented, they were not interested in their own image, but instead used the reflection to find the bowl of food behind them in under 30 seconds. 

Pigs can also be trained to learn tricks fairly easily. However, if at first they don’t succeed, getting the courage to try again is a long process, especially if the pig got hurt in the attempt. Researchers speculate that the memory of the failure is a big hurdle to overcome for many pigs. Failures in training and living conditions can affect a pig's mood, as the animals are capable of having and expressing complex emotions.

Elephants

Elephants are the largest mammals on land, and it turns out that they have the brains to back up the brawn. 

It was recently discovered that with absolutely no training elephants understand when humans point. While standing in between two identical buckets, but one was filled with food, the elephants immediately chose the one that the human had gestured. While it is remarkable that elephants are able to spontaneously understand this body language, it becomes even more impressive since many great apes are not capable of the same level of understanding.

Captive elephants had no greater advantage than wild elephants with little human interaction, leading the scientists to believe that this is an innate response, and pointing on some level may exist in elephant populations.

In a different study highlighting the intelligence of these pachyderms a group of elephants competed against a group of humans in a teamwork exercise. Not only did the elephants beat the humans in the exercise, but they were able to do it using techniques that the researchers had not previously considered.

 

Altruism or manipulated helping? Altruism may have origins in manipulation - [Article]

(Phys.org, 19, Aug 2013) - Manipulation is often thought of as morally repugnant, but it might be responsible for the evolutionary origins of some helpful or altruistic behaviour, according to a new study.

Journal article: Evolution of manipulated behavior (apologies, article not live at time of publishing)

In evolutionary biology, manipulation occurs when an individual, the manipulator, alters the behaviour of another individual in ways that is beneficial to the manipulator but may be detrimental to the manipulated individual. Manipulation not only occurs in humans and animals but also at the cellular level, such as among cells in a multicellular organism, or in parasites, which can alter the behaviour of their hosts. 

Consider the case of the parasitic roundworm (Myrmeconema neotropicum), which once ingested by the tropical ant (Cephalotes atratus) in Central and South America, causes the ant to grow a bright red abdomen, mimicking berries. This bright abdomen constitutes a phenotype manipulated by the roundworm. Birds eat the "berries," or infected ants, and then spread the parasite in their droppings, which are subsequently collected by foraging Cephalotes atratus and fed to their larva, and the cycle of manipulated behaviour begins anew.

In the study published this week in the journal American Naturalist, the researchers developed a mathematical model for the evolution of manipulated behaviour and applied it to maternal manipulation in eusocial organisms, such as ants, wasps, and bees, which form colonies with reproductive queens and sterile workers. In the model, mothers produce two broods, and they manipulate the first-brood offspring to stay in the maternal site and help raise the second brood. 

Mothers can do this by disrupting the offspring's development in some way, for example through poor feeding or aggressive behaviour. Manipulated offspring of the first-brood stay and help to raise the second brood. Alternatively, first-brood offspring can resist manipulation and leave.

The researchers show that an offspring's resistance to manipulation may often fail to evolve, if the costs of resistance are high. In a sense, then, helping or altruistic behaviour is coerced through manipulation.

"The evidence in so-called primitive eusociality, where helping is often coerced through aggression or differential feeding, appears consistent with these results," said lead author Mauricio Gonzalez-Forero, who conducted the study while a graduate research assistant at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis.

What is dyslexia? But more importantly, why is it special?

(TEDEDUCATION, 13, August 2013) - Dyslexia affects up to 1 in 5 people, but the experience of dyslexia isn't always the same. This difficulty in processing language exists along a spectrum -- one that doesn't necessarily fit with labels like "normal" and "defective." Kelli Sandman-Hurley urges us to think again about dyslexic brain function and to celebrate the neurodiversity of the human brain.

Lesson by Kelli Sandman-Hurley, animation by Marc Christoforidis

Contagious Yawning in Dogs and Humans: Are dogs more empathetic towards their owners?

(National Geographic, 8, August 2013) - Pets yawn more in response to owners' yawns than strangers', study says.

Journal article: Familiarity Bias and Physiological Responses in Contagious Yawning by Dogs Support Link to Empathy

Dog owners who claim their pets know their feelings may be on to something: A new study shows that canines yawn more in response to their owners' yawns than they do to strangers' yawns.

That suggests dogs are "emotionally connected" to people, study leader Teresa Romero of the University of Tokyo said in a statement.

Scientists already knew that dogs sometimes yawn when they see people yawn, but it was unclear if that was considered a form of empathy or mild stress, as yawning can be caused by anxiety.

So Romero and her team set up an experiment in which 25 pet dogs watched both their owners and strangers yawn or pretend to yawn. (Read about why people yawn.)

The team ruled out stress when researchers saw no significant differences in the dogs' heartbeats during the experiments, according to the study, published August 7 in the journal PloS ONE.

Not only did the dogs in the study yawn more in response to their owners' yawns, they also yawned less when they saw fake yawns from their owners or from strangers, suggesting they were exhibiting true contagious yawning.

Contagious yawning occurs in humans, chimpanzees, baboons, and dogs.

In a similar study published last year, scientists found that people yawn more in response to the yawns of people they care about most.

In the case of people, scientists suspect that contagious yawning is a form of empathizing with people experiencing a feeling, which—in the case of yawning—usually means stress, anxiety, boredom, or fatigue.

Elisabetta Palagi, of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies in Rome, noted that the study is the first time that scientists have shown contagious yawning occurring between different species.

"This could be the result of a long process of domestication," said Palagi, who wasn't involved in the study.  "Once more," she said, the study "demonstrates that dogs are capable of empathic abilities toward humans."

The Psychology of Music - [Pic] [Geeksaresexy.net]

Dolphins recognise their old friends even after 20 years of being apart

(The Independent – 7, August 2013) - New study shows that the mammals have the longest social memory of any non-human species

Dolphins are able to remember one another's signature calls for at least 20 years making it the longest memory for "faces" among animals - perhaps even surpassing the ability of people to remember one another from their appearances alone.

Every dolphin has a unique whistle which is used as a signature call and stays with them unchanged throughout life. These identifying noises are even more reliable than the facial features used by people to recognise each other, which notoriously change over time.

Now a study has shown that when dolphins have been separated for 20 years or more they are still able to distinguish the whistle call of a former close companion from a host of other calls emitted by complete strangers, scientists said.

This kind of "social memory" surpasses the recognition abilities of elephants, primates and all other intelligent animals that have been studied in this way, said Jason Bruck, who carried out the work whilst studying for is PhD at the University of Chicago.

"This research shows that dolphins have the potential for lifelong memory for each other regardless of relatedness, sex or duration of association. This is the first study to show that social recognition can last for at least 20 years in a nonhuman species," Dr Bruck said.

"This shows us an animal operating cognitively at a level that's very consistent with human social memory. This is the kind of study you can only do with captive groups where you know how long the animals have been apart. To do a similar study in the wild could be almost impossible," he said.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, involved collecting the recorded signature whistles of 53 different bottlenose dolphins living at six different facilities, from the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago to Dolphin Quest in Bermuda.

The dolphins at these sites are part of a captive-breeding programme and they have periodically spent time together going back many years, complete with fully-verified records.

During the study, Dr Bruck would play a recording of signature whistles of a stranger that a dolphin had never heard before. After repeating the call many times, the dolphin would quickly show signs that it is bored with the sound of another dolphin it had never met, he said.

Dr Bruck then introduced the call of a dolphin they had once known, and measured its response and behaviour. "When they hear a dolphin they know, they often quickly approach the speaker playing the recording. At times they will hover around, whistle at it, try to get it to whistle back," Dr Bruck said.

In one notable example, for instance, a female named Allie living at Brookfield Zoo recognised and responded to a recorded call of female called Bailey, now living in Bermuda, which had shared a pool with Allie 20 years and six months previously when they both lived at Dolphin Connection in Florida Keys, he said.

Dolphins are thought to live for about 20 years on average in the wild, although they are known to live as long as 45 years in captivity. It is possible that they social memory for signature whistles could last their lifetime, Dr Bruck said.

This is the longest, scientifically-tested social memory in animals, matched only by the anecdotal reports of elephants being able to recognise their mothers after 20 years of separation.

A study published earlier this year by researchers at the University of St Andrews found that dolphins not only recognised each other by their whistles but often mimic a close companion's unique whistle in an attempt to get them to respond.

"We know they use these signatures like names, but we don't know if the name stands for something in their minds the way a person's name does for us. We don't know yet if the name makes a dolphin picture another dolphin in its head," Dr Bruck said.

Dog and Human Genomes Evolved Together

(National Geographic, 14, May 2013) - Evolution shaped genes in humans and dogs that correspond to diet, behaviour, and disease, according to a new study.

The bond between dogs and humans is ancient and enduring. Dogs snuggle up to us at night, gambol by our side during daily walks, and flop adoringly at our feet when we crash on our couches. But new research shows that the connection runs deeper than you might think. It is embedded in our genes.

Researchers from the University of Chicago and several international institutions found that several groups of genes in humans and dogs—including those related to diet and digestion, neurological processes, and disease—have been evolving in parallel for thousands of years.

This parallel evolution was likely driven by the shared environments of humans and dogs, wrote the authors in a study published May 14 in the journal Nature Communications.

"As domestication is often associated with large increases in population density and crowded living conditions, these 'unfavourable' environments might be the selective pressure that drove the rewiring of both species," the authors surmise.

For example, living in crowded conditions with humans may have conferred an advantage on less aggressive dogs, leading to more submissive canines and eventually to the pets whose puppy-dog eyes gaze at us with unconditional affection.

The study authors suggest that dogs were domesticated 32,000 years ago; that's much earlier than current estimates, which place domestication at around 15,000 to 16,000 years ago.

"Thirty-two thousand is a little bit old," said Bob Wayne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Although he does acknowledge that the timing of a split between wolves and dogs has varied widely—ranging between 6,000 and 120,000 years ago.

The study authors also proposed that dog domestication originated in Southeast Asia, rather than the Middle East, as others have suggested.

The scientists involved in the study sequenced the genomes of four gray wolves from Russia and China, three Chinese street dogs, and three domesticated breeds—including a German shepherd, a Belgian malinois, and a Tibetan mastiff.

They were then able to figure out which genes were associated with domestication and how far back that shift may have occurred. The team also looked at the dog genes selected for during domestication and compared them with human genes.

"The history of dog domestication is often depicted as a two-stage process," wrote Weiwei Zhai, a genetics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and a study co-author, in an email. "The first stage is from wolves to dogs. The second stage is from dogs to breeds." (Read "How to Build a Dog" in National Geographic magazine.)

Southeastern Asia street dogs, including the Chinese street dogs in the study, may be an evolutionary bridge between wolves and purebred dogs due to their greater genetic diversity when compared with other street dogs from around the world, Zhai explained. This would make the Chinese street dogs a kind of "missing link" among canines.

When Zhai and colleagues took their canine sequences and compared them with the human genome, the team found that sequences for things such as the transport of neurotransmitters like serotonin, cholesterol processing, and cancer have been selected for in both humans and dogs.

Though selection in the same gene in two different species, known as convergent evolution, is rare in nature, said Zhai, their results weren't too surprising. After all, humans and dogs have shared the same living environment for years.

In addition to sharing genes that deal with diet and behavior, dogs and humans also share diseases, including obesity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, epilepsy, and some cancers including breast cancer, wrote Ya-ping Zhang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming (map), in an email.

This might be due to the fact that genes often have multiple effects, explained Zhai. "Some of the effects will be beneficial, while others can be deleterious. When the selective advantage outweighs the deleterious cost, the gene can still be selected [for]."

The cancer-related genes the research team found evolving together in both dogs and humans could be the result of processes like this, said Zhai.

"This is nice that [their study is] based on complete genome data," said UCLA's Wayne, who provided reference data the study authors compared with their genetic sequences. Other studies have used only snippets, such as mitochondrial DNA.

But he cautioned that comparing human and canine genomes can be tricky, adding that the evaluation of canine sequences from other places in addition to China and Russia would have helped in the dating of domestication and in establishing its location.

Furthermore, Wayne said, without further comparisons between humans and other domestic animals like goats or horses, it's hard to know whether the parallel evolution in the genomes of humans and dogs is unique or not.

Even so, he added, the study adds another chapter to the story of dog domestication—a story far from over.