Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum << Prev Page of 4 Next >>
Topic: Animal Smarts (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
Jeff Fettes
Byrne Robotics R&D
Avatar

Joined: 01 October 2003
Posts: 30
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 9:30am | IP Logged | 1  

Funny raccoon story thread drift:

Late one night I was coming out of the local 24-hour convenience store, and as I rounded the corner back into the dark parking lot, I spotted a raccoon comfortably laying on the hood of my car. I was driving a convertible and had left the top down, and so I didn't want the 'coon to jump in and make a mess. I thought it best to scare him away, so I raised my hands up and started making (what I thought) were loud scary noises. My monster act clicked on a motion-detector flood light, and the dark area lit up. From above me on the dumpsters that I was parked right next to, about 12 raccoons all glared and hissed at me along with their friend on my car. Yikes!

Smart, yes. But nobody told me they traveled in packs!

Back to Top profile | search
 
Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 24 April 2006
Posts: 15539
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 10:02am | IP Logged | 2  

That would have been quite a scene to capture on video, Jeff.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Steve Horn
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 26 February 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 636
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 3  

Speaking of animals, I'm in the market for another Manx cat.  Sorry, but my favorite pet is a cat, especially a Manx.

Back to Top profile | search
 
Mike O'Brien
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar
Official JB Historian

Joined: 18 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 10934
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | 4  

I figured that ego plays a part in man not thinking animals smarter, but also the fact that we like to think of them as dumb so we don't feel so bad eating them.

Then again, David Cross had a good joke about that - he noted "We don't eat dolphin because it's smart...?  So... does that mean we can eat retarded people?"

Back to Top profile | search
 
Marcio Ferreira
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 20 September 2008
Location: Brazil
Posts: 2518
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | 5  

I remember my classes at University and how we discussed that the only thing that makes us different from the other animals is our capacity to elaborate "signs" and think of abstract concepts. Some creatures are able to do so, like the chimps using a stick to catch bananas, but for them a stick is something that will be always some sort of "banana catcher", while for us the same stick can become a "imaginary" sword, something to scratch our back or a thousand other things. That associated with our incredible memory, and our communication skills are the formula to makes us humans and the raccoons, very smart animals, but far away from us in the evolutionary journey.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Simon Bucher-Jones
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 04 May 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 835
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | 6  

Its not wrong for us to consider ourselves smarter. We have a larger brain to body ratio. That's our specialism.

What we shouldn't be too quick to do is to think that, evolutionary speaking, that adaption is a long term 'winner'. It could well not be.

Clearly in the short term. The last 50,000 years - we've used our differences to dominate the larger animals. But whether we'll last as long or spread as far as beetles......

Now if we ever get to another world, that 'doubles' our chances - and would prove a win for intelligence. On one world it may not matter in the long term.

Simon BJ

 

Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Wayne Osborne
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar
Manhunter

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3817
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | 7  

A related story - my parent's pool has a similar cover. They had a cocker
spaniel and my sister had a collie (both have since gone to that big field in
the sky) but the cocker wasn't heavy enough to push the cover down to get
water from the pool to drink. The collie would go out and stand, drink what
water he wanted and wait for the cocker to come and drink too.
Back to Top profile | search
 
F. Ron Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1289
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | 8  

The raccoons certainly have it going on. The day I was convinced of this was
the day that I observed a family of four approach a curbside trash can the
night before garbage collection. What followed was like a circus act. The first
creature walks up the to the can and grabs hold. The second clambers up on
the back and shoulders of the first and so on until the stack, four raccoons
high reached the top of the can. The topmost raccoon flipped off the lid and
proceeded to raid the contents. The can, finally, was knocked over and each
of them was rewarded for their efforts.

Edited by F. Ron Miller on 21 September 2008 at 3:37pm
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Ted Pugliese
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 05 December 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 7979
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | 9  

So after posting this morning, I went out and there was a dead raccoon on the side of the rode not even a mile from my house.  Of all the rode kill, Raccoons get to me the most.  I love the little bastards.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Kevin Hagerman
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 15 April 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 17995
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | 10  

My favorite animal study: researchers in the savannahs went out and picked a random representative herd animal (such as a wildebeest).  They tranquilized it and basically painted a big bullseye on its sides.  Then they observed.  With a convincing reproducibility, the marked animals were the ones culled from the herd the next time a hunting pack came a-calling.

Conclusions: the old saw about hunters culling the weak isn't true.  Hunters cull the OBVIOUS.  The ability of the hunters to agree upon a target was the most important factor in the success of the hunt.  This is supported by the uniformity of herd animal markings as well as such behaviors as stotting.  Fascinating.  But I did feel sorry for the poor saps who got painted.

Back to Top profile | search
 
Matthew Chartrand
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 1355
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | 11  

  related story-  my cocker spaniel is smart enough to stay off my pool cover but my 14 year old daughter apparently is not.

 

I think 90%(could be 99%) of whats on t.v. proves man is not as smart as he thinks.

Back to Top profile | search
 
Warren Leonhardt
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 10 July 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 454
Posted: 21 September 2008 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | 12  

But here, with the Coon Crew's use of my pool cover, we see animals adapting to something for which their evolutionary track can in no way have prepared them. There is no natural equivalent to a pool cover stretched out just far enough above the water that the weight of the animal will push it down into that water.
++

I've seen them do this with ice on a pond, early spring, while we were out camping. Still, these animals are smart little rascals. That robber-like mask suits them.
Back to Top profile | search
 

<< Prev Page of 4 Next >>
  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login