Bird Brain
- ajmoren4
- Apr 18, 2021
- 2 min read
Before this class I knew certain animals such as elephants and apes have a high degree of intelligence. However, I did not know that birds can show the same level of intelligence as these animals and even young humans. For example, the video documentary showed an experiment involving young children being rewarded a chocolate if they wait five minutes. The video stated that “Understanding a trade off and planning for the future is a kind of reasoning that doesn't develop in children until they are three or four years old” (39:30). Similarly, Rumo the raven was able to understand the concept of a trade off that the children showed in the experiment. I also found the concept of social learning interesting (31:00). According to the documentary social learning is considered a high level of thinking and is more advanced than individually trying to solve a problem because it requires the crow to watch and then try to replicate the action. The multi access box experiment also emphasizes the level of intelligence, I was surprised when both birds succeeded in finding the four different solutions to the puzzle. They were able to adapt to their situation and use the tools to obtain the food. (21:10).
John Marzluff was a key researcher in the video documentary and was also mentioned in the TIME article about mourning. Another connection between the documentary and the TIME article was the crow funeral described by John Marzluff. Both the documentary and TIME article suggest that animals have the ability to feel emotions and even mourn for their loss. I find this amazing because many have previously believe that grief is only a human trait, but this being disproven by many animal’s behaviors such as crows. Overall, this video documentary has opened my mind to become more aware of the cognitive abilities of birds. Humans often associate animals with small brains to be limited in their intelligence, but in reality science is slowly discovering the potential of these animals and revealing that humans are not so different as previously thought.
Heya Andres! I also really enjoyed Bird Brain and found myself fascinated by what the "most intelligent" species of birds were capable of. I never sat down and thought about why birds are the way they are, and I found the experiment with the crows knowing to avoid a certain predator even generations after was astounding! There is so much to learn about birds and other animals alike, I think it's all so exciting!
Hi, Andres!
I agree that social learning in regards to animal behavior is such an interesting topic of discussion. I'd never considered the ways in which social interaction plays a key role in animal development, especially in different bird species. Your reflection seems to be pretty well written, and it inspires me to think about other questions related to animal behavior. For example, I wonder what role social interaction plays in across species instead of just birds (or more specifically, crows)?
Hi Andres,
It is a great post. I agreed with your point that grief was previously reserved for human beings. Reading the article has made it clear that this is not the case. So your reflection is strong. Do you think that cognition and intelligence are inaccurately measured in birds? It sounds that way in your conclusion paragraph. Reading your post has been a learning experience. Thank You
Chulin Tang