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Smart little buggers
| "The search for animal inventors"
(SN: 6/5/99, p. 364) opened my eyes. I started paying attention to
nature and found that a common (brown) sparrow has adapted to
benefit from us. In a parking lot, I saw a sparrow search the
fronts of cars for morsels. It ignored the back end of cars. Then
today at home, I saw the same type of bird land on a neighbor's
porch railing under a roof. It fluttered up to where the light is
and plucked a bug off the wall. The light is only on during the
night when the birds are sleeping.
Scott Meyers
Roanoke, Va. |
| Among animal inventors,
there are the English blue tits who learned to peck open milk
bottles and skim off the cream and the Japanese monkeys who
learned to wash the sand off the sweet potato slices researchers
left on the beach. Then, there were the Welsh sheep who learned to
cross cattle grids by rolling over them on their backs. I don't
know what became of them, but I have a feeling they weren't
allowed to live very long.
Bina Robinson
Swain, N.Y. |
| Your article reminded us
of an experience we witnessed in Bryce Canyon National Park. A
blue stellar jay buried something just across from our trailer. We
could not distinguish what it was and we waited. He took off,
brought back a rock the size of a Ping-Pong ball, and placed it
carefully on top of what he had buried before. He flew away a
second time and brought back a twig, which he placed on top of the
little mound. When we investigated, we found that the jay had
buried a peanut pod. We carefully replaced the rock and branch.
The next morning, the peanut pod was gone. The process
demonstrated a genius for planning, and a good memory on the part
of that magnificent bird.
John E. Deras
Phoenix, Ariz. |
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