Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/15570011550/dailydirt-animals-with-tools.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101022/15570011550/dailydirt-animals-with-tools.shtml

A captive cockatoo has been seen creating a tool spontaneously and improving upon its design. This behavior has not been observed in the wild (yet?), and it hasn't been replicated by other captive cockatoos. Still, it shows there's tool-building potential in these birds. [url]

Female chimps are usually the innovators in primate communities. The female chimps tend to leave their families when they mature... and the socializations and sharing create opportunities for starting new cultural trends -- like ant fishing with twigs or washing food before eating. [url]

Unfortunately, a mobile chat app for bonobos didn't get funded on Kickstarter. But this could still be a really cool zoo exhibit to get people communicating with apes. [url]

Forget sharks with lasers attached to their heads. The Ukrainian navy is training dolphins "to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads." Hmm. Arming dolphins doesn't seem necessary since they're already powerful enough to kill a person underwater... but maybe dolphins with guns will look more menacing to enemies. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101022/15570011550 Thu, 8 Dec 2011 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101229/04102912449/dailydirt-animals-are-getting-smarter.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101229/04102912449/dailydirt-animals-are-getting-smarter.shtml

Chimps are the only other species, besides humans, that regularly throws things. It's presumably a pre-cursor to speech and communication. Chimps in captivity even throw things without any training, as the researchers say, "I've never in my life seen a chimp be given a banana for throwing shit at someone." [url]

Until someone actually invents a dog collar that can translate dog barks into English, we'll have to study dog behavior and guess at how dogs think. Animal behaviorist John Bradshaw discusses his behavior guidebook for dogs and tips for training dogs. [url]

Researchers have observed ravens in the wild using pointing gestures. "It's over there!" quoth the Raven. [url]

To discover more interesting articles on the mind, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101229/04102912449 Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090513/1026354871/dailydirt-talking-to-animals.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090513/1026354871/dailydirt-talking-to-animals.shtml Up that can translate what dogs are saying into perfect English. But the technology to create an animal translator could actually be on the way. Considering how well machines can translate between two different human languages, though, the goal of conversational translation seems a tad lofty. Here are just a few quick links on animal communication projects.

• A prototype device for two-way communication with dolphins is going to try to talk with wild dolphins near the Florida coastline. This project is also trying to co-develop a language with dolphins, instead of trying to force a human-made language upon our flippered friends. [url]
• Pet parrots released into the wild are apparently teaching other birds how to say some human expressions. And just like high school kids learning a foreign language, these birds have picked up a lot of swear words. [url]
• Chimps that were taught sign language have been observed teaching sign language to their young. Monkey see. Monkey do! [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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