Chas Hartman's blog

Project Planning, Scrub-Jay Style!

I was recently captivated by a study I came across done by Joanna Dally of the University of Cambridge. In observing the food storage habits of Western scrub-jays, she noticed that the birds appeared to notice which other birds had an eye on them... and if they thought they were being spied upon, they would hide their stash to avoid theft. This activity points to what cognitive researchers call "theory of mind"...

image of western scrub-jay, Photo by matt knoth, flickr
image of cartoon from Steve McConnell's Rapid Development
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