Thursday 31 March 2016

Antarctic Birds can Recognize Individual Humans

Brown skuas in Antarctica can discriminate individual people, even though they normally do not see many people around. Scientists studied brown skuas living in Antarctica.

We have heard of crows, mockingbirds and magpies recognizing individual people. These birds live among people, so it may be natural that they learn to differentiate people. But what about the animals that live in remote areas? Can anyone one of them can do the same?


Scientists in South Korea studied brown skuas living in Antarctica and reported that these birds too recognize people who had previously accessed against the skuas living in Antarctica and reported that these birds too recognize people who had previously accused the nests to measure their eggs and nestlings. 

The research team performed a series of experiments. The researchers checked the nests once a week to monitor the breeding status and the skuas attacked at closer distances with repeated visits of the researchers. to test if the birds specifically distinguish the researchers who visited the nests from those who did not, a pair of humans consisting of nest intruder and neutral human approached to the nests and walked towards the opposite directions. All seven skua pairs followed and tried to attack the nest intruder but never followd the neutral human.

Source: Animal Cognition

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