Animal abilities

I was wondering the other day..

Evolutions drive has of course made us and all other living creatures and through it, it has given rise to our particular brains and given us the ability to invent. Now, we know other animals have other better senses than us, far better in many cases such as hearing, sight and so on. I don't have time to list more, but a couple spring into mind; male horned dung beetles were able to pull 1,141 times their own body weight - the equivalent of a person dragging six fully-laden double decker buses, dogs smell, bats hearing (or sonar), bee's eye sight..

Wikipedia quote on shark repellant:

  Quote

When a shark swims through the earth's magnetic field, electromagnetic induction – phenomena which generates an electric field as charged particles move through a magnetic field – creates an electric field around the shark. Minute differences in the earth's magnetic field at different locations result in minute differences in the induced electric field which may be detected by the shark's sensitive electroreceptors, especially as the head region moves back and forth during swimming (Lohmann and Johnsen 2000).

So, we've got creatures that use electric for navigation (at least) which to us is pretty damn novel, however - and this is what I've been thinking about recently; What other unknown senses have animals/insects got that we don't know about? We may have documented a lot of them but we are far from scratching the surface and I think it's damn interesting to ponder these abilities and to investigate them. I bet there's some fucking mental stuff that no one can possibly imagine that some animals have and we are just starting to realise this.

What other amazing abilities do you know that some animals/insects have? And what do you think of the possibilities of this? telepathic? psychokinesis? xray? magnetic deformation?

Some bugs can fly.

earthworms can spend their entire lives underground without having to surface for air or tabloids

That male bettle's ability to carry such weight is new to me. I knew about the other cases tho.

I dare to say we are the supreme animals on earth, besides all the stupid stuff we see that we ourselves do, we can't deny our own abilities. But there are animals that really amaze me, like the Cheetah. I never forget the documentaries i watched as a kid that showed this animal running and reaching a top speed of 100 KM/H!!! Isn't that amazing?

One animal that also is amazing to me is the eagle. Their sight can reach hundreds of meters long and still mantain a clear image. At least scientists are sure about it. Because it's impossible to know how they truly see.

I really respect these, and all other animals.

plus... double guitars. Think about it.

nobody really knows do they?

The female horse is able to expand her penis 2-5 times her body length in order to reach food in the top branches or trees

double guitars

I envy the bears ability to shit in the woods without fear of humiliation.

Actually Joshier i've thought about that too. It's pretty interesting and although double guitars are a bigger and perhaps more interesting field of research i do think it's amazing.

edit. @ George

When a bear shits in the woods, does it make a sound? The answer is double guitars.

Wait, what bear are we talking here? I just know this species:

bear grylls is a wally. it's all about ray mears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is

you can find your own video of ray mears eating fistfuls of dirt and berries.

double guitars.

The average human has a significant capacity to say a lot of bullshit

A pig has the capacity to sign 100,000 words in American Sign Language, yet it has no hands to do so.

  On 6/12/2010 at 1:52 AM, scones to die for said:

Some bugs can fly.

I heard this too. Can wattum conform?

  On 6/12/2010 at 1:21 AM, joshier said:

male horned dung beetles were able to pull 1,141 times their own body weight - the equivalent of a person dragging six fully-laden double decker buses

there is nothing amazing in this. A cat can jump up to 8 times his own length while a tiger can't. That's because when you're twice as big you're 2^3 times as heavy.

  On 6/12/2010 at 10:32 AM, Babar said:

  On 6/12/2010 at 1:21 AM, joshier said:

male horned dung beetles were able to pull 1,141 times their own body weight - the equivalent of a person dragging six fully-laden double decker buses

 

there is nothing amazing in this. A cat can jump up to 8 times his own length while a tiger can't. That's because when you're twice as big you're 2^3 times as heavy.

You just blew my fucking mind.

and my load.

there was this charming mystery of how a dog always seemed to know whether or not his owner was going to work that day -- if it was a holiday, if he took a day off, the dog always seemed to know if he was going, and would get bummed. it was magic! how did the dog know?

  On 6/12/2010 at 10:32 AM, Babar said:

  On 6/12/2010 at 1:21 AM, joshier said:

male horned dung beetles were able to pull 1,141 times their own body weight - the equivalent of a person dragging six fully-laden double decker buses

 

there is nothing amazing in this. A cat can jump up to 8 times his own length while a tiger can't. That's because when you're twice as big you're 2^3 times as heavy.

i took a bio-themed physics class back in the day, there are actually mathematical models of this shit -- jumping does not scale linearly.

  On 6/12/2010 at 10:45 AM, abusivegeorge said:

  On 6/12/2010 at 10:32 AM, Babar said:

  On 6/12/2010 at 1:21 AM, joshier said:

male horned dung beetles were able to pull 1,141 times their own body weight - the equivalent of a person dragging six fully-laden double decker buses

 

there is nothing amazing in this. A cat can jump up to 8 times his own length while a tiger can't. That's because when you're twice as big you're 2^3 times as heavy.

 

You just blew my fucking mind.

 

and my load.

and you know what ? It means dragons can't fly.

*blows*

I think animals best ability is language.

Scientifically animal don't possess language but that's pretty silly. Back in the 40s a bunch of guys met up and decided to define what language is. They determined that human language is made of 16-17 characteristics (the more important one being the ability to talk about not-I, not-here, not-now) and they said "ok guys, that's it, we found it, this is language". I don't really understand the underlying logics of such a methodology - it's plainly anthropo-centered, but well it means that technically, birds and dogs and cats don't talk.

On the other side, people like Chomsky tend to think language is deeply rooted to our genes, and they conceive language as both an organ and an ability to learn a code/convention.

During his first years, my cat wasn't that communicative, but he learnt to communicate with me. Now he's perpetually meowing and bitching around, asking me to feed him or to open the door. And when i ask him "who's the most beautiful cat" he always answers. This is funny.

Yesterday he brought home a baby bird so i caught it and placed it in a birdfeeder, up in a tree. Meanwhile his mother was looking for him, flying around and calling him. But birds are fucking dumb (no offense to the crows or parrots though) and i assume the dumber you are the less you are good at communicating : although she was like 1 meter from him she couldn't hear his calls because she wouldn't shut the fuck up. It was tragic.

So yeah, i think it's important to talk with cats and dogs. You won't teach them how to talk, but who knows, maybe in 100 000, 1 000 000 years they'd have evolved and be able to sing songs and write poems.

why can't birds fly backwards?

here is my current model of the pet mind:

pets like cats and dogs are good at noticing patterns, but they can't read in between the lines. the dog learns the word "dinner" and so you can't use that word any more without the dog getting all riled up. so you start to spell it out... D-I-N-N... and then the dog figures out that also means DINNER. however, the dog cannot actually learn to spell. the dog does not understand the concept of spelling. if, after the dog learned DINNER, instead of spelling out D-I-N-N, you started spelling out C-A-C-T-U-S, you would get the same results in the same amount of time. the dog will never be able to make the logical leap required to spell out words on its own. it has to hear you say the spelling, and then notice the correlation between that pattern of sounds and dinnertime...

it is the same with everything else in the dog universe. they notice your body language, tone of voice, and habits you don't even realize you have... because they are totally dependent on you for survival. it can wind up seeming like they can read your mind, but they're just paying very close attention.

  On 6/12/2010 at 12:18 PM, Plum said:

why can't birds fly backwards?

i come up dry on this one. wing design? because they'd get poop in their face?

edit: i'm hoping you have a punchline ready

hummingbirds don't count.

  On 6/12/2010 at 12:47 PM, Plum said:

hummingbirds don't count.

and that's not a punchline.