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Magpies Are Self-Aware
FireStormZ writes "Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals. It had been thought only four species of apes, bottlenose dolphins, and Asian elephants shared the human ability to recognize their own bodies in a mirror. But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies, a species with a brain structure very different from mammals, could also identify themselves. It had been thought that the neocortex brain area found in mammals was crucial to self-recognition. Yet birds, which last shared a common ancestor with mammals 300 million years ago, don't have a neocortex, suggesting that higher cognitive skills can develop in other ways."
Crows have been observed making tools and using them.
Birds are in general a lot smarter than we've given them credit for. It might be time to rethink the term 'bird brain'.
And for a bit of bird watcher trivia... Australian magpies are in a completely different family than their European and American counterparts.
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Most pheasants are not wild - at least here in the UK. They're reared then released as shotgun fodder. This might explain why they seem stupid.
No experience of the outside world.
Artificial neural networks bear little to no resemblance to biological ones. Modeling a brain is a bit more difficult than training a system of artificial 'neurons' to approximate a (possibly unknown) function.
Biological neural networks are comprised of many more units of much higher complexity and containing much more variety than we could hope to simulate even on a tiny scale yet, even if we had a list of all the types of neurons and connections required. Add to this that the cells themselves exist in a chemical environment where oxygen, hormones and surrounding cells play a key role in the whole system and our efforts to digitise ourselves are, with the present state of technology, totally and utterly feeble.
Simulating an avian brain is going to be no easier - we still need all the knowledge about brain structure that we simply don't have. We are probably in fact closer to being able to simulate our own brains - a lot more research has gone in to our brains than those of Magpies.
They did not only try to get a better view of the dot, they tried to remove it (from themselves) while only seeing it in the mirror. Yes, I RTFA. Won't happen again.
Magpies also have been known to kick the shit out of people. Some of them even going so far as to attack just a single person over and over again.
I had a lady friend who was in Cann River, OZ and before visiting she'd had a magpie attack and beat the hell out of her head.
This is not meant to be a excerpt from "The Holy Grail", but you aren't confusing Australian and European magpies are you? They are completely different birds. European magpies aren't the aggressive b***ers that Aussie ones are during the breeding season.
These are probably not the same as the Magpies talked about in this story. These are European magpies, which are a completely different family of birds. The European version are a lot smaller.
It's not new. Dave Barry did it years ago. And it can't be random -- there has to be some insight applied.
As to the Self Aware Magpies, I think they're great. I have all their album.
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Relevant video of crows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loywBRJS9I0
Thanks for the assist. With a little googling I found its genus, the Sphex or 'Digger Wasp'.