Originally posted by RobG
Sleepy Time! by
RobGeraghty, on Flickr
---------- Post added 22-03-17 at 10:13 PM ----------
Cool whale pics! Emus are just as intelligent as they need to be, I guess. Some birds are highly intelligent. Emus may not be a good example. They seem curious to me, but nowhere near the intelligence of parrots. I've watched wild Corellas playing with each other, and the local Cockatoos pull the rubber linings out of the street lights for the fun of it.
Parrots sometimes display startlingly evidence of "intelligence," the kea perhaps being the "smartest" of modern birds. But, they have 65 million years of additional evolution since the dinosaurs went extinct to become "smart," and perhaps 100 million years before that since birds and dinosaurs split into distinctly separate lineages. That's enough time to convert a tiny mouse-sized mammal into an astronaut. The ratites have changed far less since the end of the dinosaurs than other modern birds, and are probably more like the raptors from which birds evolved than any other modern avian. Here's an anecdote. A zoo I visited had a bird show that included an emu. Two keepers came out on opposite sides of the field where the show was staged, each with a white plastic container (bottom half of of a milk carton as I recall) that held emu chow. One handler keeps the container behind their back, the other holds theirs out and shakes it vigorously. The emu, between them, is meanwhile pecking at the ground, turning this way and that, until suddenly it sees the handler shaking the container. Immediately it runs over and starts eating. The handler suddenly whisks the container behind their back. Immediately the emu looses interest and goes back to pecking randomly on the ground. Meanwhile the other handler has brought their container to the front and is shaking it noisily. The emu does not respond until it happens to see the handler and then it runs over and starts gorging on the pellets. The second handler whips the container behind their back and again, for the emu the container has ceased to exist. This emu had been doing the show twice daily for nine years and had so far failed to learn 1) when doing the show, I will get food; 2) the handlers will be offering that food; 3) the sound made by pellets rattling means food is being offered; 4) when the container disappears, the handler still has it behind their back; 4) when one handler is not offering food, the second handler will and the sound of pellets rattling is the cue. The emu is stuck on: a good visual target (=white container) contains food - period. I doubt that any dinosaur had significantly better intellect, despite the fairy tales.
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