How Animals Think
Scrub jays can trick you, researchers say. Monkeys kick themselves for mistakes in judgment. And at least one parrot figured out something close to the mathematical concept of zero.
Animals can be remarkably devoted -- as the stories on these pages prove. What's less obvious is how smart they are. In study after study over the past decade, they've shown abilities previously thought to exist only in humans.
Take the scrub jays. A few years ago, Cambridge University professor Nicky Clayton, PhD, found that these birds can be surprisingly devious, remembering not only what foods they've hidden but where, how long ago, and whether anyone else might have noticed. "If another bird was watching, they'd wait until that bird was gone and then move the food," Clayton says.