Right up Mark's Alley

[Balboa]

Sorry if the article's been linked before, I found nothing on a search but who knows.

I imagine Mark knows about it, but just in case he doesn't

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/03/25/rsbl.2010.0092.full

Social learning in a non-social reptile (Geochelone carbonaria)

very interesting, to me at least

 

[Yvonne G]

Hm-m-m...48 views and no Mark. He must be off doing some OTHER interesting pass time.

 

[Balboa]

ROFL
hmm friday afternoon, lotsa better things than hanging here I imagine

 

[Madkins007]

Come on, I was here during my morning break at work, and just got home! Not all of us can live 24/7 on the keyboard.

Interesting article, Balboa! I appreciate you flagging it for me.

The first thing I noticed is that they have a fundamental fact wrong- Red-foots DO exhibit some social or conspecific behaviors in the wild, as documented by Debra Moscovits and others- none of whom are mentioned in their resource list. They follow scent trails, they group shelter, they do and respond to mating calls, and they are often found in clusters regardless of the activity.

Then I got to wonder about the premise. OK, so a tortoise learns to defeat a fence to get food by watching another tortoise. Would it also have learned by watching another animal, or even a target item, like a red ball on a stick, etc.? We ALREADY knew our tortoises learned from watching us- they come out when they see us, etc.

It is nice to see confirmation that they learn, huh?

 

[Balboa]

Yup!

I was pretty much thinking the same thing when I first read it.... NOT the best choice of species to try and prove their thesis.

but you're right, proves they're smart!

 

[Yvonne G]

Moderator note: Josh isn't online right now, but I have sent him a PM letting him know that our spam system has banned Balboa. Josh is the only one who can lift the ban.