Word: behaviors
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...thanks to a high-protein diet (this evening's menu: carpaccio, swordfish steak and hot milk for dessert). Her weight, of course, is hardly the only thing that has made her a star of the gossip pages. There were the slew of canceled concert appearances, the reports of erratic behavior, a faltering singing voice and a feud and chilled relations with her half sister Lorna Luft, author of a warts-and-all family memoir. No one ever said being the daughter of Judy Garland (dead of an overdose at age 47) was easy. But for a walking, talking soap opera...
...that the seniors, and newly elected members, can properly reflect on these questions, consider what we currently know about chicken behavior, emotion and thought. Chickens live in large social groups and form complex dominance hierarchies whereby high-ranking animals out-compete low-ranking animals for access to valued resources. Chickens have a complex vocal repertoire consisting of approximately 25-30 different vocalizations. Within this repertoire, they have one call for aerial predators and one for ground predators. They also have food calls, and scientists have discovered that these vocalizations function like our words--they refer to objects and events...
...remove the chipped wood from their cages. Several animal researchers complained, saying that hens "need" chipped wood. On the face of it, this seems like a highly anthropomorphic claim. After all, how would one know what chickens need or want? Marian Dawkins, an internationally recognized researcher in animal behavior, designed an extremely clever experiment to address this claim...
...transparent door. In one compartment, she placed chipped wood on the floor while the other compartment was empty. In one experiment she placed a hen inside the empty compartment. Immediately, the hen pushed the door open and walked into the chipped wood side and began scratching--a species-typical behavior. If the hen started on the chipped wood side, she never went over to the empty side...
Marc D. Hauser is Professor of Psychology in the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program...