As my friends know, I am convinced other animals are as smart as humans — merely adapted to their own world. How well would you do on an IQ test designed by an octopus or an elephant?
Australian magpies (not the same species as the northern hemisphere ones) are best known for swooping anyone entering their territory while they have nestlings. I have seen two successfully chase off a wedgetail eagle, perhaps 50 times their size. It reminded me of fighter planes attacking a bomber.
In a new report, Dominque Potvin describes an accidental discovery. Climate change is a serious threat to magpies, so we need more information about their travels. So, her research team devised a tiny tracking device, and tested it out on five birds.
The magpie family took this to be a challenge, and demonstrated their intelligence by removing the trackers.
So there.
Bobbing Around 
Good for the Aussie birds.D
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Dear Dr Bob Rich,
I would like to submit the right link to my aforementioned post entitled “We have Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology“. It is available at
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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Dear Dr Bob Rich,
Birds have had much longer to evolve since they are descendants of the dinosaurs.
The African grey parrot, and in particular, one that is called Alex, has been reputed to have an intelligence of a five- or six-year-old child. This is all the more remarkable considering that the size of its brain is that of a walnut.
As you probably already know, Edward Osborne Wilson, the father of “sociobiology” and “biodiversity”, who coined the term “biophilia”, has recently departed. How sad it is to learn that the eminent scientist and writer has passed away on Boxing Day! Needless to say, we shall continue to remember the enormous contributions and miss the presence of a truly great human being. Had he lived for another ten years, perhaps another two or three books could have materialized. Of all the scientists and writers who have passed away in my lifetime, his departure is of the most profound loss for me.
My recent post entitled “We have Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology” is a very special tribute to Wilson. Indeed, I have been very substantially improving this post since it was first published, and welcome your esteemed feedback and thoughts there, and I shall be very delighted if you were to be so kind as to submit a comment there. It is available at
Wishing you and your family a productive week doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most, whether physically, intellectually or spiritually!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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I shall visit and read. 🙂
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Dear Godfather,
The first link that I gave you led you to the much shorter post entitled “Illustrating Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology“, which you visited and commented. Thank you very much.
I would like to invite you to peruse and comment on the longer one entitled “We have Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology“. It is available at
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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