For once, the world wide web brings us some non-intrusive, non-exploitative evidence of avian capabilities: Here’s a video of a crow playing on a rooftop, using a circular object as a sled. Tool use has been widely documented among crows, who often both express and develop their intelligence in play. But it’s rare to have . . . → Read More: The Latest Craze: Crowboarding
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If you are the sort to make New Year’s resolutions, which ones have you made that pertain to non-human animals? While it’s common to focus one’s efforts upon Improving Oneself (I will lose weight, I will read more, I will take an evening class), how about this year making at least one resolution that helps . . . → Read More: New Year’s Resolutions, Anyone? 
A new study published in Current Biology proves (as if more evidence were needed) that, in the words of zoologist Matthew Cobb, “humans aren’t quite so unique, after all.” The so-called news is that chimps will warn other chimps about a hazard if and only if the other chimps don’t already know about the danger. . . . → Read More: Chimps, Chickens, and Communication Thanks to everyone who wrote in and let me know that the piece about the teacher taking kids to see cows being murdered was fake. I did see that the site was “NewsWEAK,” but I thought that referred to the authors’ opinions about the news, not that the news itself was FAKE. So, I apologize, . . . → Read More: Sorry I’m a Sucker!! I suggest we all send thank-you notes to this teacher who inadvertently (one hopes) turned at least a few kids into life-long vegans: http://newsweak.com/news/school-field-trip-tour-of-slaughterhouse-traumatizes-children#.TvkcWoXncWw.facebook Science fiction is a vastly underrated genre. For almost 200 years now (if you consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to have been the first modern science fiction novel), it’s been on the cutting edge of the technological changes that drive society — not just making up stories about such innovations, but extrapolating them to their logical . . . → Read More: The Matrix and the War on Christmas 
Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against the Department of Justice on behalf of six animal advocates seeking to overturn the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Among those activists is longtime friend of the sanctuary Sarahjane Blum. We feel very proud of her and the co-plaintiffs in Blum v Holder (as well . . . → Read More: Tell Obama: Don’t Defend AETA Reposted with permission from SuperWeed: A new study published in Science demonstrated startling deficiencies in empathy and reasoning among even the most highly educated and otherwise proficient people. The researchers conducting this widely publicized study placed mammals in positions of frightening frustration and then dispassionately sat back and watched to see whether other mammals would . . . → Read More: Newsflash: Study Shows People Less Empathic Than Rats A couple of weeks ago, when our fabulous volunteers from Brandeis University were here, a couple of young female students were accosted in the woods while they were posting “No Hunting” signs. They had gotten quite a bit off the survey map boundary, and were indeed posting trees that were not on our property. The . . . → Read More: Hunters In The Woods Next to the Sanctuary: A Cautionary Tale |
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Bye Bye Blackbirds
This just in:
“Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year’s Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.”
That’s right: After finding thousands of dead bird bodies in the street . . . → Read More: Bye Bye Blackbirds