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Empathy Is For the Birds
grrlscientist writes "Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a 'friend' or relative when they are distressed after an aggressive conflict — just like humans and chimpanzees do. But birds are very distant evolutionary relatives of Great Apes, so what does this similarity imply about the evolution of behavior?"
man, i saw the title and was hoping ubuntu ditched empathy and went back to pidgin....
You're right. The best way of understanding things is to stop observing them.
In the same way a Slashdot comment dissing research is surprising.
Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
I find the more I observe /. the less I understand it. Is that what you meant?
Lawyers?
You idiot! Lawyers aren't mammals, they come from a different phylum altogether - I think it's entoprocta.
I'm sure both dolphins and mice will have the good foresight to leave the planet before Thursday. I've already received my good by note from the dolphins, and the mice have offered to buy my brain.
"After 10 years in Alaska, I've only seen one dead raven. It had been fried on the power line above my friends truck while he was sitting in it eating his lunch. Plonk!...in the back of the truck it fell. It is so rare to find a dead raven that the Dept. of Fish and Game wanted the corpse for study."
So that's the raven's equivalent to joining the Darwin Awards?
And, as a bonus, Schrödinger's cat gets to LIVE!
Well, maybe...
...I'd better go check...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
I agree on the ability to communicate, I disagree that vocalization is key. I think we may have come up with some sort of sign-language or language based on snaps/claps & rhythm if we lacked vocal chords.
If we lacked ear drums we would have been a dead species a very long time ago. "did you hear that, it sounded like a tiger coming to eat us" "no frank, i dont hear a god damn thing because I dont have ears, neither do you AAAAHHHHGGG Im being eaten!!!"
I watched my cat carry on a 10 minute conversation with one. Obviously some sort of speech between the two...never seen anything like it before, or since.
Yeah, but you don't know what was being said.
Cat: I am so gonna eat you.
Crow: Yeah, whatever.
Cat: No, for sure.
Crow: Yeah, whatever.
Cat: I am totally gonna eat you. Om nom, dude.
Crow: You and all your genius, verb-conjugation-challenged LOLCAT friends, I'm sure. I'm quaking in my down.
I often see my friend's cat chatter while staring, intrigued, at birds. I'm guessing it might be some kind of way to keep nearby cats informed of possible prey.
But, yeah, crows are brilliant.