When western scrub jays spot the lifeless body of another on
the ground, they cease their foraging and flight to alert fellow jays. And from
great distances the others come, gathering around their dead and singing their
cacophonous dirge -- what ornithologists call "zeeps,"
"scolds" and "zeep-scolds" -- to encourage those even
farther away to attend.
According to a recent study published in the journal Animal
Behaviour, these funerary rites help jays share information about nearby
danger. In the study, Western scrub jays reacted differently to a series of
objects set out by observers from the University of California, Davis: They
attempted to scare off a stuffed predator, scolded a stuffed jay, ignored
painted scraps resembling a dead jay, but gathered to better understand the
implications of a true death.
Of course, such practical yet metaphysical contemplation
isn't entirely shocking coming from such a smart bird. Recent research also
suggests western scrub jays may be among the most intelligent animals, with a
brain-to-body-mass ratio that rivals that of chimps and whales and an uncanny
ability to plan for the future -- long believed a uniquely human trait.
Read more in BBC Nature.
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