TITLE: Chimps’ Lifelong Learning Sheds Light on Tool Use Evolution
https://neurosciencenews.com/chimp-tool-evolution-26056/
EXCERPT: Humans have the capacity to continue learning throughout our entire lifespan. It has been hypothesized that this ability is responsible for the extraordinary flexibility with which humans use tools, a key factor in the evolution of human cognition and culture.
In this study, Malherbe and colleagues investigated whether chimpanzees share this feature by examining how chimps develop tool techniques as they age.
The authors observed 70 wild chimps of various ages using sticks to retrieve food via video recordings collected over several years at Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. As they aged, the chimps became more skilled at employing suitable finger grips to handle the sticks.
These motor skills became fully functional by the age of six, but the chimps continued to hone their techniques well into adulthood. Certain advanced skills, such as using sticks to extract insects from hard-to-reach places or adjusting grip to suit different tasks, weren’t fully developed until age 15.
This suggests that these skills aren’t just a matter of physical development, but also of learning capacities for new technological skills continuing into adulthood.
Retention of learning capacity into adulthood thus seems to be a beneficial attribute for tool-using species, a key insight into the evolution of chimpanzees as well as humans. The authors note that further study will be needed to understand the details of the chimps’ learning process, such as the role of reasoning and memory or the relative importance of experience compared to instruction from peers.
The authors add, “In wild chimpanzees, the intricacies of tool use learning continue into adulthood. This pattern supports ideas that large brains across hominids allow continued learning through the first two decades of life.”
TITLE: Whale song has its own 'phonetic alphabet', research shows
https://www.itv.com/news/2024-05-08/whale-song-has-its-own-alphabet-research-shows
EXCERPT: The scientists say they have found four basic components they think make up the whales' phonetic alphabet. This alphabet can then be used by the whales in an unlimited number of combinations - similarly to how words are used by humans.
The whales also vary the rhythm and tempo of their clicks, adding an extra layer of complexity and meaning.
Dr David Gruber, the founder of the long-term study, called Project CETI, said. "It opens up the possibility that sperm whales have an incredibly complex and nuanced communication system."
To get enough examples of the sperm whale clicks in Dominica, where there is a population of around 200 whales, scientists created a giant underwater studio with microphones at different depths.
Tags on the whales also record what position they are in while clicking - for example diving, sleeping, or breathing at the surface - and whether other whales are nearby.
Scientists hope they will one day be able to understand what sperm whales are trying to communicate. That knowledge could be used for conservation purposes, like minimising their risk of being hit by ships or reducing ocean noise levels.
TITLE: Animal welfare: With artificial intelligence they verified that chickens get excited and afraid
https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/science/animal-welfare-with-artificial-intelligence-they-verified-that-chickens-get-excited-and-afraid.html
EXCERPT: A team of French researchers demonstrated that chickens blush with emotions and that they can be more or less intense depending on their state and the action to which they are exposed.
The study, published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science, is based on an imaging program that took 18,000 photographs of six Sussex breed chickens observed at all times for three weeks.
To analyse chickens, some typical aspects of the species must be taken into account, since one could imagine that a free bird is happier than one in a confined environment. Since their ancestors were frequent victims of predators from the sky, modern chickens tend to fear open spaces and that is why they are placed between trees and bushes.
In fact, the most recent scientific work suggests that chickens feel safer in dense environments of sorghum or olive plants. The same is true for chickens in habitats with artificial cover, such as netting and straw huts where they are more likely to groom and rest.
Returning to the aforementioned work, the researchers were able to differentiate shades of blushing in this species of laying hens based on the observation they made on a farm in the Loire Valley, in central France. When they were given mealworms as food, the chickens would blush and turn maroon during a negative experience such as the possibility of capture.
Until now, similar work had not been carried out on chickens, although there were previous experiences regarding the study of redness in the skin of the blue and yellow macaw, as was opportunely published in the magazine 'My science'. The study with these domestic birds was carried out for three weeks and consisted of photographing and filming six three-month-old hens. With these images it became possible to measure the levels of redness of the facial skin.
According to the official research report, “the results showed that chickens redden their faces to degrees that vary depending on their emotional state. When presented with appetising food the chickens turned slightly red, but their entire face turned purplish during negative experiences. On the contrary, when they were at rest, their skin seemed much lighter.”
The artificial intelligence (which achieved 80% accuracy when dealing with emotions such as hunger, fear, anger, satisfaction, excitement and distress) learned to recognise the sounds of chickens using a technique called Deep Emotional Analysis Learning. According to University of Tokyo professor Adrian David Cheok, “if we know what animals feel, we can design a much better world for them.”