Topic: Evolution

When i was a little kid i had alot of fun scaring away the pigeons in the city.I just  had to approach them,wave my arms and say "boo" and tall of them would fly away.
Now that doesn't work anymore.you have to almost kick them to make them even walk away.And they fly into  park  decks and subway stations.

Natural selcetion can't change the behaviour in such a short time frame,information about the enviroment has been passed to the offspring.

The inmates are running the asylum

Re: Evolution

Of course all kinds of behavioural information gets passed on.

But perhaps your observation on what type of information is wrong. Perhaps you just don't put as much effort in your boo and waving as you used to!

I suggest you set up a similar long term experiment with lions; and let us know what happens when you boo and wave, or kick.

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Re: Evolution

I'll set that up after you let them loose on the streets, park decks and subway stations tongue

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Re: Evolution

Pigeons are reknown for their exceptional avian IQs. They can be taught complex routines and stimuli responses, they can discriminate between individual members of their species, and it's been suggested before that they may be able to recognize themselves in a mirror. What they are perhaps best known for is their homing ability -- they can find their way back home over extended distances. This is not the same as the migratory instincts inherent in most birds, where they typically follow the same route each time at specific times of the year. It's also why pigeons have been used as nature's airborne courier in military history.

Learned behavior, however, is distinct from adaptations in an evolutionary context. It is not the same as pigeons having a genetic predisposition to ignoring your attempts at scaring them off. It's just as likely that the pigeons can somehow communicate the correct responses to "unlearned" pigeons through either body language or maybe even vocalization, or a combination of both. The "group dynamic" as it is understood by psychologists is very much alive in herd animals.

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5

Re: Evolution

well thats not exactly evolution, if you watch longer you'll see pigeons still run and fly away from small kids, but they dont often run away from adult people, and that has 3 empiric explanations:

1.Small kids are small demons

2.Animals can detect energy fields around, your energy field is strong when you are young and it goes decreasing as you grow

3.Animals have learned adult people act like robots in the town, while small kids are real predators trying to catch them and treat them like toys.

It not only happens with pigeons, a domestic cat flees and hides when a small kid enters the room, dogs often act strange ways and bite small kids because they see a menace in them.


So what you call evolution I would call it PANIC!! yikes