Pack of Wolves and Murder of Crows
- Michael Meza
- Jul 22, 2019
- 2 min read
Emery, Nathan J., and Nicola S. Clayton. “The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes.” Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 10 Dec. 2004, science.sciencemag.org/content/306/5703/1903.full.
I found this article by using some keywords I picked up in our readings. The key words were corvid and intelligence. I found this through the UCI academic search. The research was done on corvids ability to learn and retain information. An observational part of this research is watching the crows hide their food and to even come back to that spot later. One experiment showed the birds returning to the nonperishable items that they hid rather than perishable items they did hide. The conclusion the writers made was that while corvids (birds like crows and Jays) have a different brain structure than apes, they are on a similar intelligence level to apes. This study helps us understand intelligence and how these flying animals have such a small brain but are still extremely intelligent.
Udell, Monique U.R., et al. “Wolves Outperform Dogs in Following Human Social Cues.” Animal Behaviour, Academic Press, 21 Sept. 2008, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347208003631?via%3Dihub.
I found this article by title by looking at the works cited page of one of our readings. The research done in this article basically questions the difference in mental capacity of dogs and their ancestry (wolves). They did a point test to both dogs and wolves and when a wolf is hand-reared, it can pick up on social cues just like a dog. The conclusion was that when dogs and wolves are raised in the same environment, there is no difference in a test of human to canid communication. This study helps us to learn about the environmental effects of intelligence in the "nature vs. nurture" debate. This study of the effects of the environment may even provide insight to humans as well.
What I've learned through this specific assignment is that doing research and finding good, usable articles on what you would like to find is extremely difficult as many articles can be about completely different things. I learned that the amount of information on the internet is astounding but much of it may not be usable. I found that while using the academic library databases is at times complicated, once you do find an article it is high quality and also has other articles cited that may also be of help.
I agree with you on the point where you said the internet has so much information, but only little of them is usable. I think one thing you could work on is to further explain how bird brains have similar intelligence level while having a much smaller size than ape brains.
I remember that how our readings remarks that unusual intelligence within crows and other birds. I am excited to see how you research extend that topics if you that's your decided focus.
It was very interesting to notice how you connected the ancestery of dogs to wolves and ultimately make connection to mental capacity. I am also doing a similar research except I am focusing more on their family relationship. Good work!
Hi, Michael. You show the whole process about how you find the articles that are related to your research topic. Good job. I also like what you talk about how these studies help us better understand the creatures and environment.