Who Rules The Animal Kingdom?

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It used to be thought that only chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants and humans could recognize their reflection in a mirror. Now German scientists have added magpies to that list. When magpies were marked with a red or yellow dot that was visible to the birds only in a mirror, they scratched the dot. To prove the birds scratched the dot because they recognized themselves in the mirror - and not because they were investigating what had been done to them - other magpies were marked with a black dot. Those birds didn't scratch. This means self-awareness isn't limited to mammals. It also means birdbrains are brainier than we'd previously thought. A German study done by the University of Duisburg-Essen found that cows can sense the Earth's magnetic field. Using Google Earth, the researchers looked at more than 8,500 cows in 300 pastures all over the world. They discovered that cows line up their bodies to face north or south when they are grazing or resting - regardless of the sun's position or which direction the wind is blowing. Although birds and bats use internal compasses for navigation, the researchers don't know why cows use theirs. For now they're cowed by the unknown. Scientists recently discovered mice can smell fear. Mice have a tiny bundle of cells in their nose that enables them to smell "alarm pheromones", the chemicals produced when animals are afraid. Mice that had the cells removed showed no fear when exposed to air in which other mice had been euthanized. When mice with the cells in tact were exposed to the same air, they froze in fear. Although fish have the same ability to smell these pheromones, scientists have discovered that water pollution can interfere with it. This is nature telling us we don't take "suffishient" care of our environment. According to research done at the California Institute of Technology, time flys for flies - especially when they're about to be swatted. A fly has less than one-tenth of a second to perceive danger with its eyes, determine what direction the danger is coming from and use its legs to reposition itself to jump away from the danger. All this is accomplished by a brain that is the size of a poppy seed. For humans to successfully swat a fly, they need to anticipate the fly flying away from them and extend the swat in that direction. This is basic SWAT training.

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