About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherTexas A&M University Press

ISBN-100890966710

ISBN-139780890966716

eBay Product ID (ePID)2228595

Product Key Features

Number of Pages200 Pages

Publication NameMinds of Birds

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1996

SubjectLife Sciences / Zoology / Ethology (Animal Behavior), General, Life Sciences / Zoology / Ornithology

TypeTextbook

AuthorAlexander F. Skutch

Subject AreaNature, Science

SeriesLouise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight18.4 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN95-004645

Dewey Edition20

TitleLeadingThe

Series Volume Number23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal598.251

SynopsisIn this controversial culmination of a lifelong quest, Alexander F. Skutch, a well-known ornithologist who has studied birds for more than sixty years, makes a case for "believing that birds' mental capacities have been grossly underestimated." Lacking hard scientific proofs of what birds think and feel, we are left, Skutch argues, with inferences gleaned from observation of their behavior. His intimate, six-decade study of tropical and north temperate birds and his wide survey of the literature inform this remarkable review of the psychic life of birds. Although varying widely by species, many birds have a striking ability to recognize as individuals not only other birds of their own kind (which all look alike to humans), but also familiar humans, even after a long absence. They have good memories and give indications of forethought. Only humans take more elaborate care of their offspring than most birds do, and few animals of any kind live in such closely united families as those of cooperatively breeding birds, which carefully avoid incest. The diverse play of birds suggests their capacity for enjoyment. They can be taught to count up to eight, and some are known to use tools. The tastefully adorned constructions of bower birds and the songs of many other species also point strongly to an aesthetic sense. The journeys of migrants between known breeding and wintering territories separated by thousands of miles speak of memory and navigational skills that baffle human observers. True, Skutch concludes, inferential evidence only suggests hypotheses and cannot offer scientific proof. Nonetheless, his carefully gathered and documented observations, delightfully reported, accord with the strong intuition of many bird lovers that birds are not unfeeling automata but sensitive creatures, aware of what they do. Birders and behaviorist ornithologists alike will find Skutch's work provocative and rewarding-no more easily dismissed than the apparently purposeful behavior of the birds he describes. A timely and useful contribution to the debate on animal intelligence, this book offers--with precision, force, clarity, and a wide range of examples--a challenge to the longstanding mechanistic view of nonhuman life.

LC Classification NumberQL698.3.S553 1996