11/27/2023 0 Comments Tool reflection geniusYet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead". In terms of conventional physics the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of the acre. For our growing fascination with the abilities of birds and other animals is being played out against the backdrop of an ecological catastrophe that threatens many of the species Ackerman describes with extinction within a few decades, a catastrophe that will wipe out not just their genetic potential, but the unique and wondrous mystery of their inner lives.Īs the great naturalist Aldo Leopold eloquently put it in a passage quoted by Ackerman towards the end of this fascinating book, "the autumn landscape in the north woods is the land, plus a red maple, plus a ruffed grouse. It seems likely this trend is at least partly driven by the pace of scientific discovery in the field, and by our increasing understanding that the differences between animals and ourselves are ones of degree rather than kind.īut it's difficult not to wonder whether there is also some dawning awareness of what is taking place on the periphery of our vision. Recent years have seen a rapid uptick in the number of books exploring the natural world in general and animal intelligence in particular. More deeply though, The Genius of Birds is an eloquent reminder that the abilities of birds (and indeed all animals) are ultimately the result of evolutionary adaptation, and that making sense of their abilities requires us to understand the world on their terms.ĭoing this is challenging, because it demands we recognise the astonishing diversity of avian life, decentre our assumptions, and begin to think of birds as beings in their own right, as immersed in their own lives and the business of survival as we are ourselves. When she writes of a bird's "wild knot of a heart", or the "snaky finesse" of a heron's neck we see the birds she describes not as things, but as living presences, things in themselves. Birdsong and song acquisition rely on the same genes that govern language in humans.īirds have social aptitudes and even aesthetic abilities: for example, pigeons have artistic preferences, and are capable of distinguishing a Renoir from a Monet and a Picasso from a Braque.Īckerman's account of these abilities is admirably clear, and is made the more affecting by the elegance and beauty of her language. Crows and ravens don't just craft tools, they carry particularly useful ones with them other birds have been known to use improvised weapons, hurling pine cones, jabbing enemies with sticks and even, in the case of one pernickety eagle, using a branch to bludgeon a recalcitrant turtle.Īstonishing feats of navigation and memory allow birds to fly thousands and even tens of thousands of kilometres without getting lost. The Genius of Birds offers an often awe-inspiring tour of these abilities and many more. Birds even experience REM sleep as we do, suggesting they dream. Crows are capable of analogical reasoning. Jays seem to display empathy for their fellows, and to grieve. Northern hemisphere magpies recognise their own reflection, suggesting they possess a sense of self. Birds learn and innovate, developing novel solutions to technical challenges and passing them on to other birds.Ĭrows remember the faces of people they dislike, and educate their fellows so the offending individual will find themselves mobbed years or even decades later. Yet as Jennifer Ackerman makes clear in her fascinating book, The Genius of Birds, tool use is just one of the many areas in which birds display abilities that would have been thought impossible a few decades ago. Yet 007's efforts were remarkable not just for the speed with which he unlocked the puzzles, but for his ready comprehension that one tool could be used to create or access another tool, a skill that displays a capacity for abstract thought hitherto unseen outside humans and great apes. The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman.
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