We know that great apes are super-smart, but, even so, wow: Wounded wild orangutan Rakus "repeatedly applied the liquid onto his cheek for seven minutes. Rakus then smeared the chewed leaves onto his wound until it was fully covered. He continued to feed on the plant for over 30 minutes... researchers saw no sign of infection and the wound closed within five days." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68942123#primates#orangutan#animals#animalcognition#anthropology#zoology
I was reminded of some old studies by Toukhsati and Rickard on how rhythms can facilitate learning in young chickens, which have been mostly ignored over the years, probably because they were ahead of their time.
But they seem especially relevant to those of us in music cognition who are increasingly interested in the neural mechanism of rhythm, beat, meter, and groove in both humans and non-human animals. Not to mention the health and education applications of music!
I spent yesterday in shock and grief over the death of primatologist and animal-behavior scientist Frans de Waal, and that continues today. Here are only some of his books that revolutionized my thinking, research, and teaching about animal cognition and emotion. #FransDeWaal#animals#ethology#chimpanzees#animalbehavior#animalcognition#books
A man who changed the way we look at animals, and allowed animal behaviour scientists to look at animals as richly emotional and much closer to humans than we care to admit. Rest in peace, Frans de Waal.
Very excited to have contributed to this piece in Science on cognition in livestock; unfortunately behind a paywall :( but TLDR: farm animals are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, and @Goatsthatstare and his colleagues at FBU do amazing work!
There is no a priori reason to presume that certain species of cetacean don't elaborate and maintain their own inter-generational oral traditions of historical epics.
Just a thought that popped into my head while hacking out the details of a #pragmatist approach to history here.