451
Studies in cognitive ornithology to somehow make meaningful (to ourselves) the
mental world of birds, avian intelligence in general has tended toward quite primitive markers and criteria: “numerical competence,” “symbolic matching,” “associative learning,” “cache recovery,” various forms of “spatial memory,” the use of
obstacles and mirrors (“self-recognition”), “tool and compound tool making,”
“object tracking,” variability of a host of strategies in general, “pattern learning,”
and numerous anatomical investigations of the forebrain of birds versus mammals,
for example, “socio-ecological variables (diet, social structure, relative brain size,
innovation, life history and habitat) across corvids, parrots, other birds, monkeys,
apes, elephants and cetaceans…”.
39
In 2016, “the first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the
brains of birds” found that—in equal brain masses—there were “significantly more
neurons packed into their small brains” (birds) than in mammals, including
primates.
40
“Birds are remarkably intelligent, although their brains are small,” the authors at
once declare. Unlike most birds, chickens will want to reproduce and lay eggs independent of seasonality, or whether a male is present. Write the authors of The
Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens, “This phenomenon is based on a hereditary
factor. In the course of time, one has by selection more or less eliminated the characteristic that birds only lay eggs after having mated up in the mating season….the
outcome of a focused selection”.
41
What Verhoef and Rijs also point out is the
extraordinary diversity of chickens, as seen in their head furnishings, combs, feathers, crests and beards, muffs, and in the variegated plumage mottling, lacing, spangling, penciling, striping, and barring.
42
The vast artistry of a chicken’s global
diversity is simply beyond any other class of aves. Gorgeous, striking differences, in
color, communicative range, depth and enthusiasm, curiosity, affection, intensity of
personality, on every continent except Antarctica, where scientists eat them, but
cannot import them due to infectious disease liabilities for indigenous penguins.
39 See one of the most comprehensive and sensitive essays on the topic, “Cognitive ornithology: the
evolution of avian intelligence,” by Nathan J. Emery, Philosophical Transactions B, Philos Trans R
Soc Lond B Biol. Sci. 2006 Jan 29; 361(1465): 23–43, Published online 2005 Dec 7. Doi: 10.1098/
rstb.2005.1736, PMCID: PMC1626540, PMID: 16553307, The Royal Society Publishing, NCBI
PMC, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1626540/. Accessed May 4, 2020.
40 See “Bird brain? Ounce for ounce birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than
mammals or primates,” Vanderbilt University, Science News, June 13, 2016, citing “Birds have
primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain,” by Seweryn Olkowicz, Martin Kocourek, Radek
K. Lučan, Michal Porteš, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Suzana Herculano-Houzel, and Pavel Němec
PNAS first published June 13, 2016 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517131113. Edited by Dale
Purves, Duke University, Durham, NC, and approved May 6, 2016 (received for review August 27,
2015), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, https://
www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/07/1517131113.abstract.
41 Esther Verhoef and Aad Rijs, The Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens, Rebo Publishers, Prague,
The Czech Republic, 7
th edition, 2006, p.65.
42 ibid., pp. 101–113.
48.4 Intelligence Quotients
Studies in cognitive ornithology to somehow make meaningful (to ourselves) the
mental world of birds, avian intelligence in general has tended toward quite primitive markers and criteria: “numerical competence,” “symbolic matching,” “associative learning,” “cache recovery,” various forms of “spatial memory,” the use of
obstacles and mirrors (“self-recognition”), “tool and compound tool making,”
“object tracking,” variability of a host of strategies in general, “pattern learning,”
and numerous anatomical investigations of the forebrain of birds versus mammals,
for example, “socio-ecological variables (diet, social structure, relative brain size,
innovation, life history and habitat) across corvids, parrots, other birds, monkeys,
apes, elephants and cetaceans…”.
39
In 2016, “the first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the
brains of birds” found that—in equal brain masses—there were “significantly more
neurons packed into their small brains” (birds) than in mammals, including
primates.
40
“Birds are remarkably intelligent, although their brains are small,” the authors at
once declare. Unlike most birds, chickens will want to reproduce and lay eggs independent of seasonality, or whether a male is present. Write the authors of The
Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens, “This phenomenon is based on a hereditary
factor. In the course of time, one has by selection more or less eliminated the characteristic that birds only lay eggs after having mated up in the mating season….the
outcome of a focused selection”.
41
What Verhoef and Rijs also point out is the
extraordinary diversity of chickens, as seen in their head furnishings, combs, feathers, crests and beards, muffs, and in the variegated plumage mottling, lacing, spangling, penciling, striping, and barring.
42
The vast artistry of a chicken’s global
diversity is simply beyond any other class of aves. Gorgeous, striking differences, in
color, communicative range, depth and enthusiasm, curiosity, affection, intensity of
personality, on every continent except Antarctica, where scientists eat them, but
cannot import them due to infectious disease liabilities for indigenous penguins.
39 See one of the most comprehensive and sensitive essays on the topic, “Cognitive ornithology: the
evolution of avian intelligence,” by Nathan J. Emery, Philosophical Transactions B, Philos Trans R
Soc Lond B Biol. Sci. 2006 Jan 29; 361(1465): 23–43, Published online 2005 Dec 7. Doi: 10.1098/
rstb.2005.1736, PMCID: PMC1626540, PMID: 16553307, The Royal Society Publishing, NCBI
PMC, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1626540/. Accessed May 4, 2020.
40 See “Bird brain? Ounce for ounce birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than
mammals or primates,” Vanderbilt University, Science News, June 13, 2016, citing “Birds have
primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain,” by Seweryn Olkowicz, Martin Kocourek, Radek
K. Lučan, Michal Porteš, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Suzana Herculano-Houzel, and Pavel Němec
PNAS first published June 13, 2016 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517131113. Edited by Dale
Purves, Duke University, Durham, NC, and approved May 6, 2016 (received for review August 27,
2015), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, https://
www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/07/1517131113.abstract.
41 Esther Verhoef and Aad Rijs, The Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens, Rebo Publishers, Prague,
The Czech Republic, 7
th edition, 2006, p.65.
42 ibid., pp. 101–113.
48.4 Intelligence Quotients