Latest Animal intelligence Stories
Most of the linguistic functions in humans are controlled by the left cerebral hemisphere. A study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, Georgia), reported in the January 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex), suggests that this "hemispheric lateralization" for language may have its evolutionary roots in the gestural communication of our common ancestors. A large majority of the chimpanzees in the study...
Wildlife conservationists say a boom in palm oil -- used extensively for biofuel and processed food like margarine -- has affected the jungles in Borneo, endangering the already declining orangutan populations, AFP reported.Experts believe that among the 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, some 80 percent of them are in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia's Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.However, the charismatic red-haired apes will be virtually eliminated in the wild within two...
DNA from more than 1,500 whales examinedAfter 15 years of research in the waters of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and an international coalition of organizations have unveiled the largest genetic study of humpback whale populations ever conducted in the Southern Hemisphere.By analyzing DNA samples from more than 1,500 whales, researchers can now peer into the population dynamics and relatedness...
Seismic surveys used for oil and gas prospecting on the sea floor are a disturbance for the rare blue whales, AFP reported.The calls of blue whales were recorded at a feeding ground in Canada's St. Lawrence estuary in August 2004, according to team members Lucia Di Iorio of Zurich University, Switzerland, and Christopher Clark, an acoustics specialist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York.The study, appearing in Biology Letters, a journal of Britain's Royal Society, documented...
Although you wouldn't want one to balance your checkbook, dogs can count.They can also understand more than 150 words and intentionally deceive other dogs and people to get treats, according to psychologist and leading canine researcher Stanley Coren, PhD, of the University of British Columbia. He spoke Saturday on the topic "How Dogs Think" at the American Psychological Association's 117th Annual Convention.Coren, author of more than a half-dozen popular books on dogs and dog...
Although you wouldn't want one to balance your checkbook, dogs can count. They also can understand more than 150 words and will intentionally deceive other dogs and people to get treats, according to psychologist and leading canine researcher Stanley Coren, PhD, of the University of British Columbia.Coren, author of popular books on dogs and dog behavior, has reviewed numerous studies to conclude that dogs have the ability to solve complex problems and are more like humans and other higher...
It wasn't that many years ago that the bowhead whale was written off as extinct in the waters around Greenland and especially in Disko Bay in northwest Greenland where University of Copenhagen has its Arctic Field Station.But now the situation has changed and adult bowhead whales, which can grow up to 18 meters long and weigh 100 tons, have returned to the bay. Probably because global warming has opened up the Northwest Passage, making it ice free at certain times of the year for the first...
The use of tools by hominins - the primate group which includes humans (Homo) and chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan) - has been extensively researched by archaeologists and primatologists, both of who manifest the relevance of tool-use in understanding technology and the origins of human behavior. However, recent research has highlighted the need to include other species such as gorillas and orangutans, as well as other extinct primate groups prior to hominins, in order to situate, for the first...
A new Japanese study finds that pigeons have "advanced perceptive abilities" which allow them to recognize beauty in the same way humans do.The month-long, government-funded study found that the birds were able to differentiate "good" paintings from "bad" ones.The research team from Tokyo's Keio University had conducted a previous study that found the birds were able to distinguish between a Picasso and a Monet. In the current study, they wanted to see whether the pigeons actually had a...
A Malaysian orangutan sanctuary has come under fire from environmentalists.The location under the microscope is Orangutan Island in Malaysia's north, billed as the world's only treatment and preservation facility for the endangered mammals.Care that has been abundantly given to the animals, provided by a staff of seven nurses, is lost on environmentalists who insist that this is hurting instead of helping the orangutans.The owners of the 35-acre island say the goal of the facility is to...
