DailyDirt: Anthropomorphizing Animals

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Feb 6th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Humans tend to think about other animals in human terms -- which is only natural since we don't really have other frames of reference other than our own experiences. So not surprisingly, it's always interesting when animals seem to enjoy the same activities that people do and seem to be able to solve problems better than we can. Here are just some fairly recent examples.

Orangutans at a Milwaukee zoo get to play with iPads and even have access to the internet. Pretty soon the zookeepers will have to install internet filtering software so that these orangutans don't try to gamble away their bananas via online casinos. [url]
The "Monty Hall Dilemma" is a probability problem that most people don't solve correctly by instinct, but some birds seem to? Given "three doors" with mixed grain as a prize, pigeons seem to learn how to optimize their door-choosing strategy better than people. [url]
People like sledding on snow-covered hills with inner tubes and lunch trays. Crows like to sled down snow-covered rooftops using jar lids. Sledding is just fun, but you'd think that animals that can fly wouldn't be so entertained by sliding along the ground.... [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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Filed Under: animals, crows, intelligence, monty hall problem, orangutans, pigeons, smart animals

20 Comments

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Torg (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 5:23pm

Man, screw those orangutans. They keep beating my high score in Angry Birds. And they have an unfair advantage, since they just have to sit in a cage all day. I could get three stars too if I didn't have to study.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 5:40pm

Damn
I thought we'd finally get a My Little Pony post on Techdirt...
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Michael Ho (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 5:44pm

Re:
Just wait until those orangutans take over the planet.. hopefully, they'll remember how well we treated them when they enslave humans!
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Torg (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 5:57pm

Re: Damn
There was a brief mention of My Little Wu-Tang last year, but considering that they're almost exactly following Mike's Theory of the Economics of Free you would think there'd be more exposure.
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Yartrebo (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:08pm

Link behind paywall
Would it be possible to not link to stuff behind a paywall? That "Monty Hall Dilemma" link is behind a paywall good for nineteen dollars and ninety-five cents.
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TtfnJohn (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:12pm

Dem smarty pants crows
Crows and ravens do love to play and find ways to amuse themselves. Just about anything will do but I've not seen one sledding before!

Cute as that looks, though, beware -- don't get anywhere near a crow or raven's nest when there are chicks in it or you'll be subject to co-ordinated attacks by mom and dad as well as other members of their murder (a flock of crows) until they drive you off or inside. Worse. They'll remember you and continue the attack until the chicks are grown and gone.

Don't mess with crows! :-)
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fb39ca4, 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:23pm

Soon they will have to filter orangutan porn.
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Pixelation, 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:31pm

Now we know why there has been such a spike in visits to Pooflingers.com.
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fb39ca4, 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:36pm

Re: Link behind paywall
Agreed. If anyone does buy it, would you be so kind as to copy and paste the text into a comment on here?
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:57pm

Re: Re:
It will be the planet of the apes.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Feb 2012 @ 6:59pm

I would think that they would tend to destroy these devices, since they probably won't take care of them as well as a human would. They don't understand the concept of cost like we do and they probably don't know how much these devices cost since they aren't paying for them. Maybe we should make them a special device that is more robust than what would normally be given to a more careful human.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 6 Feb 2012 @ 7:03pm

Re: Man, screw those orangutans.
I�ve heard orangutans characterized as being like they�re spaced out on dope all the time�apparently they�re a pretty laid-back bunch.

Chimps, on the other hand, are pretty violent and nasty.

Bonobos are supposed to be a subspecies of chimp, but they behave completely differently�instead of being violent, it seems they believe in �make love, not war�.

So let�s see, that covers sex, drugs and violence in the ape world. Did I miss anything?
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Torg (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 7:50pm

Re: Re: Man, screw those orangutans.
Monkeys also steal things. Really it's a wonder it took as long as it did for people to realize that we're related.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 6 Feb 2012 @ 7:59pm

Re: Man, screw those orangutans.
Only monkeys? No ape larceny?
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Xyro TR1 (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 9:09pm

Re: Damn
One can hope.
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Michael Ho (profile), 6 Feb 2012 @ 10:19pm

Re: Link behind paywall
sorry about that... but a little googling and here's the full paper:
http://people.whitman.edu/~herbrawt/HS_JCP_2010.pdf
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RBM, 6 Feb 2012 @ 10:36pm

Reminds me of an anecdote, eschewing the "Disneyfication" of children's view toward animals. A girl finds a small lizard, which crawls around on her arms and hands. Her father explains that the reason he's doing that is because he's cold blooded, doesn't make his own body heat, etc. and is attracted to hers.

The girl looks up with a horrified look on her face and asks, "You mean he doesn't LOVE me, daddy? D:"
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gab4moi (profile), 7 Feb 2012 @ 3:56am

OMG!!!
Won't someone think of the orang children!!! Filter the chimp porn immediately!!!
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 7 Feb 2012 @ 6:56am

Re: Re: Damn
They've actually been cracking down on the fan distributions lately. Fortunately, not in a comprehensive manner.
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Torg (profile), 7 Feb 2012 @ 10:31am

Re: Re: Man, screw those orangutans.
Apes use extortion and burglary, but petty theft and pickpocketing are firmly controlled by the lesser primates.
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