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#7903 07/14/06 04:44 PM
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Meerkat pups do not learn how to eat dangerous animals such as scorpions on their own but are taught by adults, scientists have discovered.

Researchers found that adults bring dead animals to the youngest pups.

As pups get older, helpers disable live prey for them; finally they coax the youngsters to hunt for themselves.

Writing in the journal Science, the scientists suggest meerkats are only the second non-human animal species found to teach its young actively.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5177594.stm


DA Morgan
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#7904 07/15/06 02:14 AM
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It has been my understanding that teaching of
hunting/eating behaviors has been observed in;
wolves, bears, and hunting cats, to name just
a few below the primate level.
The recent furor over 'tool use` in chimps amused
me, as I remember previous well documented but less heralded reports of use of twigs as tools by
birds, which did not recieve as much publicity.
(The birds selected, but did not 'modify` the tool.)

#7905 07/17/06 03:07 PM
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I have read about New Caledonian Crows which shape sections of palm leaf into hooked tools that they use to extract wood eating grubs. The Crows can even vary the shape - e.g. thin ones for narrower holes.

#7906 07/17/06 03:25 PM
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i guess they never abserved cats. i have several generations of cats. i used to live in the country where there were a number of rats i was told are called kangeroo rats. they are almost as big nose to tail as a kitten. long before my first kittens were exploring as far as my front door, they were playing with kangeroo rats, dispite the fact that i never saw one inside otherwise. then i observed the mommy cat bringing one in, and releasing it near the kittens. she then stationed herself near the door (only exit the rat could take) and watch the babies have fun with it. while the kr might not have been dangerous, its size obviously made it something the kittens would not immeadiately see as prey. I believe that it was this training to take on things their own size, that led to Airborne (the name i game one that loved to attack from above) learning to be a rodeo star with a dog much bigger than him as the bronco.


the more man learns, the more he realises, he really does not know anything.

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