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KVO:
> That would be my day, Joe, that you were insinuating that birds got
> hold of a mechanic by which they can transfer learned behavior down
> to the offspring after such a long period of time !!
>
> Possibly you think about the possibility that parents instructed, learned
> their children by seeing milkbottles, again, how to open them after the
> war !? That there is no Lamarckian mechanism involved here, just a few
> birds with a very good memory !?
> I think that is the way you see this !?
> I could agree on that,
JD:
> I definitely think that it is a behavior passed on by imitation; baby
> bird see mommy/daddy bird do it, baby bird do it, too. Likewise
> with birds of a feather flocking together; observation inspires action.
> The sight of the milk bottle could trigger recognition memory, which
> lasts longer than recall memory.
Has anyone considered how easy it is for this behaviour to occur de
novo? If it is at low (but not vanishingly small) rate, it would be more
easily learned than invented, so the dynamics will be those of meme
spread; but if there is an interruption, it could easily reoccur.
Apparently the original thing started in several places, given the
advent of the new foil tops across many regions, in a fairly short space
of time. This is a bit like the way agricultural pests cross to crop
species actually (new niche appears out of the blue).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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