Some fascinating reading in the meantime: the adaptive social behavior of stray dogs in Moscow. As the economy and social makeup of Moscow has changed, the dogs’ behavior has changed. (via MeFi)
Some fascinating reading in the meantime: the adaptive social behavior of stray dogs in Moscow. As the economy and social makeup of Moscow has changed, the dogs’ behavior has changed. (via MeFi)
This only confirms what I’ve been suspecting for some time: By more or less forcing animals to live in environments shaped by human activities (i.e. cities, villages, roads, industry, farmland), we are making them more intelligent.
The future Earth will have to be shared with other intelligent species. But that’s probably for the best; the other options for wild animals to survive in “our” world are:
A) Evolve perfect camouflage to blend in among people (such as in the horror film MIMIC);
B) Become so ferocious, humans will avoid you
C) Burrow underneath human cities (countless rats already do);
C) Become so nauseatingly cute that people can’t bring themselves to shoot you (picture a live elephant that resembles Dumbo).