Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA10564 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 28 Jan 2001 18:27:48 GMT Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 11:56:25 -0800 (PST) From: Dave Gross <dave@eorbit.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Gulls Find New Way To Eat Clams In-Reply-To: <20010128094520.B566@reborntechnology.co.uk> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0101281152420.23623-100000@boojiboy.eorbit.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-EXP-Smart-Gulls.html
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JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) -- The herring gull scoops a clam out of a muddy creek,
flies 200 yards to a road, rises a few feet higher, opens its bill and bam!
-- the clam hits the pavement...
``I think herring gulls have the capacity to learn how to do it and the
others don't,'' Cristol said. ``They learn it from one another.''...
``His ability to age the gulls can help in trying to understand how do
gulls get so good at this,'' Smallwood said. ``Is it instinctual? Are they
able to use their experience to hone in on it by trial and error, or do
they learn from each other?''
Cristol wonders whether the gulls have a mechanism for learning by
observing other members of their species. Only a few instances of such
so-called ``social learning'' have been documented.
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