How animals think

"At first, the New Caledonian crow simply watches the menacing presence suspiciously, hopping around in circles to get the best possible view. Eventually, overcome by curiosity, it picks up a twig that it would normally use to forage for food and pokes the threatening object, before jumping back in apprehension. When the thing fails to respond - being a rubber spider - the crow gains confidence and returns to lift it this way and that, peeking at the underbelly.

The behaviour, recorded in a study led by Joanna Wimpenny, in Alex Kacelnik's lab at the University of Oxford, certainly looks smart. You or I might well behave in a similar way were we to come across something strange and potentially dangerous. But what's really going on behind those beady eyes? A deliberate thought process or mere animal instinct?

The question of whether other animals can think has troubled some of the greatest minds throughout the ages. Aristotle and René Descartes believed that animal behaviour is governed purely by reflexes, while Charles Darwin and the 19th-century psychologist William James argued that animals might have complicated mental lives.

We are now closer than ever to settling this debate. Taking into account a wealth of reports of ingenious animal behaviours, including those of the New Caledonian crows, many biologists have come to believe that certain creatures really do have rudimentary thoughts. Meanwhile, the latest brain-imaging experiments are helping us understand what kind of anatomy might be necessary for a thinking brain. Although it's unlikely that their mental lives are quite as complex as ours, there's much more going on in their heads than you might think."
via New Scientist / continue reading