Why do we find dolphins so alluring? For some it is their playfulness, the joy that comes from being in their presence, their intelligence, the love we sense, they way they’ve been known to protect humans or alert them to danger, or their general lack of aggression. Why do we admire these qualities? They are […]
Continue readingCategory: Mind in Nature
The Emergence of Self-Awareness: The Mirror Test
Do other animals have a sense of self? One common way of answering this question is with the “mirror test”. Does an animal recognize itself in a mirror? The test was first devised by Charles Darwin who held up a mirror to an orangutan in a zoo, noting how the animal reacted with unusual facial […]
Continue readingThe Connection Between All Beings
New podcast. Life throughout the universe, evolving in consciousness. ETs. Whales. Song as a universal medium. http://www.peterrussell.com/TV/audio.php
Continue readingSwim with whales – Tahiti – Sept 2009
Come swim with humpback whales and their new calves in the pristine clear waters of Polynesia. Each year, from July to October, South Pacific humpback whales come to this spot to give birth. September is the best month to be with them, when the new calves are old enough to venture close. Each day, we […]
Continue readingPigeon Play
It is a windy day. Across the street is a seven-storey office block with a flat roof. Two pigeons fly across the rooftop and over the edge. The gusting wind catches the pair, throwing them around in the air, tumbling them down towards the ground. Nearing the ground, they fly out of the wind. Then […]
Continue readingRat Smarts
Psychologists run laboratory rats through mazes and to test their learning abilities. But this example in the wild beats any laboratory experiment. Rats had nested in a rockery outside my kitchen door. Wanting to move them away to a more comfortable location in the forest, I set up one of those humane rat traps with […]
Continue readingBehind the Mirror Test for Self-Consciousness
It was recently shown that elephants passed the mirror test for self-consciousness. Along with chimps, orangutans, and dolphins, they recognized that they are seeing themselves in the mirror. However, other animals that may not pass the mirror test in its hard form, i.e. a positive recognizing themselves, do pass a softer form of the test […]
Continue readingWhalesong
We stopped the boat about two miles offshore, and switched off the engines. Immediately we could hear the singing of a humpback whale. I have heard them underwater many times. They are the ocean equivalent of birdsong in a forest; their moaning songs playing in the background, sometimes coming from miles away. But to hear […]
Continue readingGroup Mind in Flocks of Birds
The water pipits have just returned for their winter sojourn. In the morning they often skim the water in flocks of 50 to a 100, turning this way, then that, seemingly as a whole. Many times I’ve watched flocks of birds wheeling together, and wondered if this is truly a collective phenomenon, a consequence of […]
Continue readingPete’s Pond
This is one of the most fascinating webcams I know. It is focused on Pete’s Pond (nothing to do with me) — a watering hole in Botswana. In recent days I’ve seen lions, elephants, monkeys, various deer, crocodile, umpteen species of bird, and more. You can access it at: http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/index.html Or open the following directly […]
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