Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
As I’m home during the early morning, and thus limited to photos that just arrived. Today we have a short but sweet set of two from Stephen Barnard, who’s been AWOL for a while.
First, a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus):
And then Deets, one of Stephen’s two Border Collies (the other is Hitch). As he says, the fresh snow “amps them up”. This is an “almost all black dog”, but doesn’t count as such for my purposes.
A coyote in San Francisco (yes, they’re there) was found to be the source of missing newspapers that had been delivered but disappeared. The deliveryman then observed the coyote playing with the purloined papers as if they were toys.
He managed to solve the problem, though, and guess how? Click on the headline to find out.
The thieving beast:
h/t: Su
Remember to send in your photos! We have some shots from a new contributor, Robert Ashton. His notes are below:
Photos taken outside Beaumaris Castle, built at the very end of the 13th century. In #1 a female mallard duck [Anas platyrhynchos] and her duckling are in the foreground. #2 is a close-up. #3 is a gull (don’t know species) enjoying a crab for breakfast.
4-8 are photos of what I believe are guillemots, nesting on the cliffs near the Anglesey lighthouse (photo #4). In #5 a man standing next to me with binoculars swears there was a puffin in the area but I’m damned if I could see it. They do have puffins in the area.
JAC: These are probably the common murre, Uria aalge, also known as the common guillemot.
After a hiatus, Stephen Barnard has sent several pictures. The first is a formal portrait of his border collie Hitch, named after you know who. Note the false eyespots, bred to deceive predators (JUST KIDDING).
Here’s a cat that Stephen live-trapped as a feral kitten—along with her brother—last June. They were named Jerry Coyne V and Jerry Coyne VI, and were both adopted. (There are several Jerry Coyne cats, and my goal is to populate the world with namesake cats. Free books to those who name their cat after me!)
Here’s a photo of Jerry Coyne VI, taken by Jeanine, her primary staff. Her working name is Juniper, or Juni for short. [JAC: I object to the names being changed.]
Here are the siblings Jerry Coyne V and Jerry Coyne VI, shortly after being trapped last year. How fast they grow!
Sent from Belize, where Stephen went fishing over the holidays:
Here’s a flash photo of one of the Yellow-crowned Night Herons (Nyctanassa violacea) that hang out on the back of my room.
And a landscape from Stephen’s ranch in Idaho:
Yes, that’s the perennial question, and of course it depends on what you mean by “smarter”. Several people (mostly dog owners, of course) have sent me articles touting a recent finding that dogs are smarter than cats because they have more neurons in their brains. For example, this article reports a new article in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy (reference and free abstract at bottom; I haven’t read it as it hasn’t been published beyond the abstract).
“I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience,” says neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel from Vanderbilt University in the US.
Past studies have compared the ‘neural packing density’ in the brains of our favourite carnivorous pets, estimating that cats have about 300 million neurons, roughly doubling the 160 million of dogs.
But now it seems we might have been a little hasty handing the trophy to cats.
The team looked at eight different meat-eating animals, analysing one or two representative specimens of ferret, mongoose, raccoon, cat, dog, hyena, lion, and brown bear.
Based on their results, dogs have closer to 530 million neurons, compared to the 250 million of cats.
What’s more, dogs had the most neurons of any carnivore, even though they didn’t have the largest brains.
Sorry, but this is complete nonsense. Barring data showing that neuronal number has a very tight correlation with intelligence, barring widely accepted definitions of animal “intelligence”, and barring “intelligence tests” on a diversity of species, all we know is what the paper reports: dogs have more neurons in their brains than do cats. And there could be reasons for that beyond intelligence, like, perhaps, olfaction.
The real way to see which animal is smarter is to devise some test that comports with your definition of animal intelligence, and then apply it to the species in which you’re interested. You also have to be sure that the animal can be trained to take a test—and we know about training of cats versus dogs.
The kicker here, which throws all this garbage out the window, is in the very article above:
The real oddball carnivore is the racoon [sic; these people can’t even spellcheck] – even though it’s close to cats in terms of size, it actually has a similar number of neurons to dogs. Considering raccoons can smash intelligence tests, we’re not surprised.
Racoons >> dogs even though they have the same number of neurons. Sorry, but I’m not impressed with neuron count.
And here’s another bit of evidence: watch the video below. The “smart” dog can’t figure out to turn the stick sideways. And realize that a cat wouldn’t even pick up a damn stick to please somebody else. Now who’s smarter?
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Alvargenga, D. J. et al. 2017. Dogs have the most neurons, though not the largest brain: Trade-off between body mass and number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of large carnivoran species. Frontiers Neuroanatomy, in press. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2017.00118
It’s been a while since we had an All Stephen Barnard Post, but I’ve accumulated enough photos to put one together (don’t forget to send me yours!). Stephen’s notes are indented:
This was sent to me after I admired the photo of Deets the D*g on Facebook:
You liked this on FB so I’m sending it, and a couple of others (Trumpeter Swans [Cygnus buccinator] and a Red-tailed Hawk [Buteo jamaicensis]).
First, Deets:
These photos were taken through a spotting scope at full magnification in poor light, so they aren’t quality photos but they show some interesting behavior.
A cow moose (Alces alces) with two calves was crossing a field at a good pace to get to the cover of the ponds. One of the calves has tiny spike antlers. They were followed by two mature bulls, probably intent on hanky panky. The bulls will drive off the calves and likely fight for mating privileges.
As a lagniappe, here’s a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) that sensed prey (probably a meadow vole) by sound and is banking for the kill.
Some moose visitors. These are twins that I often see. They browse the willows across the creek this time of year, cropping the buds off at precisely moose-reaching level. This is an example of ungulates affecting a riparian zone. Without the moose (and to a lesser extent the mule deer) browsing, the willows would, I believe, expand their range.
Hitch and Deets are always amused by big game visits.
As a lagniappe, a sunrise with the peak called Queen’s Crown in the far distance.
And the bald eagles are back! I’m told that nest-building will probably commence in January. This pair has fledged many chicks over the years.
Desi (left) and Lucy (right) are still hanging in there (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). They have to build a new nest, as their last year’s nest blew down (but the three fledglings made it).
A juvenile Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) flying with the big boys.
It’s not draping a human, really, but this photo, sent to me by reader Janet, showed a truly original and hilarious Halloween “costume”. And who—except for d*gs—could find it offensive?
Normally I’d put this video up to make fun of d*gs, but I’m feeling charitable here in Ivy Land, so let’s just say this is a fun video in which a canid mistakes the moon for her ball—a ball that she thinks has been thrown upwards and has stuck in the sky: