Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Animals

A few recent findings,common misconceptions and amazing adaptations.

Parrot Talk More Than Just Squawking

Parrot speech is commonly regarded as the brainless squawking of a feathered voice recorder. But studies over the past 30 years continually show that parrots engage in much more than mere mimicry. Our avian friends can solve certain linguistic processing tasks as deftly as 4 to 6 years old children. Parrots appear to grasp concepts like "same" and "different", "bigger" and "smaller","none" and "number". Perhaps mostly interestingly, they can combine labels and phrases in novel ways. A January 2007 study in Language Sciences suggests using patterns of parrot speech learning to develop artificial speech skills in robots.

Elephants Do Forget,But They Are Not Dumb

Elephants have the largest brain - nearly 11 pounds on average of any mammal that ever walked the earth. Do they use that gray matter to the fullest? Intelligence is hard to quantify in humans or animals, but the EQ , a ratio  of an animal's observed brain size to the expected brain size given the animal's mass, correlates well with an ability to navigate novel challenges and obstacles. The average elephant EQ is 1.88. (Humans range from 7.33 to 7.69, chimpanzees average 2.45, pigs 0.27.) Intelligence and memory are thought to go hand in hand, suggesting that elephant memories, while not infallible,are quite good.

Crocodiles Swallow Stones For Swimming  

The stomach of a crocodile is a rocky place to be, for more than one reason. To begin with, a crocodile's digestive system encounters everything from turtles, fish and birds to giraffes, buffalo,lions and even (when defending territory) other crocodiles. In addition to that bellyful-o'-ecosystem,rocks show up too. The reptiles swallow large stones that stay permanently in their belies.It's been suggested these are used for ballast in diving.

Birds Use Landmarks to Navigate Long Journey

Can you imagine a road trip vacation without missed exists, stubborn drivers, loss of GPS signal or map-folding disasters? Of course not,You are not a bird. Pigeons can fly thousands of miles to find the same roosting spot with ho navigational difficulties. Some species of birds, like the Arctic tern, make a 25,000 mile round- trip journey every year. Many species use built-in ferromagnetic to detect their orientation with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. A November 2006 study published in Animal Behavior suggests that pigeons also use use the familiar landmarks on the ground below to help find their way home.

Baby Chicks And Brotherhood

It's a mistake to think of evolution as  producing selfish animals concerned only with  their own survival.Altruism abounds in cases where helping hand will encourage the survival of genetic material similar to one's own. Baby chicks practice this "Kin selection" by making a special chirp while feeding. This call announces the food find to nearby chicks, who are probably close relations and so share many of the chick's genes. The key to natural selection isn't survival of the fittest animal. It's survival of the fittest genetic material, and so brotherly behavior that favors close relations will thrive.