[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally posted by Scientist:
The strange thing is that wild turkeys are actually very intelligent animals. Most domesticated animals, for whatever reason, seem pretty stupid. Perhaps we bred them for this. The ancestors of some modern farm animals may have been the ones that were too dumb to escape.

Let me breed YOU to your sister for the next 300 years and let's see how smart you are...

greg

[Scientist]

Originally posted by benb:
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I was watching OLN one day and two guys were hunting turkeys. They were all sneaky, using calls, camouflage, whispering, and hiding until the turkeys got close enough to pop one. Like you would hunt deer. The only thing is, when they finally shot one all the other turkeys just stood there. Didn't run, didn't flap. Nothing. The guys walked over to the dead turkey and the live ones only moved about 15 feet away. They could have just walked over to a turkey and popped it. No need for the stealth.

So anyway, I'm inclined to believe that turkeys are in fact incredible stupid.

I've read the opposite <shrugs>.

[ghporter]

Originally posted by Scientist:
The strange thing is that wild turkeys are actually very intelligent animals. Most domesticated animals, for whatever reason, seem pretty stupid. Perhaps we bred them for this. The ancestors of some modern farm animals may have been the ones that were too dumb to escape.

In many cases the cause of domestic animals being not as smart as their undomesticated cousins is that they don't HAVE TO BE smart any more. People take care of them, defend them from predators, and so on.

When it comes to dogs versus wolves, the basic intellectual difference is that a wolf has to keep track of a huge geographic region that is his pack's range. A dog doesn't need that; his range is very limited. It can be shown that the location correlation structures that wolves depend on are also used for higher cognition. Since dogs don't have as much of that location need and thus less of that structure, they have a lesser abiltiy to use those higher cognitive abilities.

And calling wild turkeys "intelligent" in no way means that they understand what people are, nor what that huge "BOOM" sound they just heard meant.

[MilkmanDan]

wow, thanks modern world, for sucking up chickens so that we don't have to.

[kalani79]

I'm surprised nobody's asked! Do the chickens have large talons?

If so, this machine is pretty helpful.

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by kalani79:
I'm surprised nobody's asked! Do the chickens have large talons?

If so, this machine is pretty helpful.

Roosters have spurs, and yeah, it hurts when they flog you with them.

[theolein]

Originally posted by benb:
...

So anyway, I'm inclined to believe that turkeys are in fact incredible stupid.

But they have good grammar. (Joke)

[Lancer409]

Since no one posted it, and I personally cant resist ...


That's one helluva **** Sucker ...

ok .. let the complaints begin ...


edit: hrmm .. they edited the word c0ck

[Scientist]

Domesticated animals shouldn't lose their genetically encoded cognitive abilities simply because they don't need them anymore. By what mechanism do you propose a lack of need for intelligence would lead to it being lost. I can think of a few, but I'm not sure they would work fast enought to explain the bulk of the issue. I think ShortcutToMoncton may have a good point...

I'm not so confident about the turkeyt thing anymore. I thought I read that they had good hunter avoidance abilities. Perhaps I am thinking of a different animal. I will do some reaserach and let you know.

You bring up a very good point though. You cannot use human standards to judge the intelligence of an animal. Intelligence is relative to the animal's needs. If a human had a turkey's brain, it's be a pretty stupid human. I'm equally as confident that we would be very stupid turkeys, if a turkey was endowed with our intelligence.

Originally posted by ghporter:
In many cases the cause of domestic animals being not as smart as their undomesticated cousins is that they don't HAVE TO BE smart any more. People take care of them, defend them from predators, and so on.

When it comes to dogs versus wolves, the basic intellectual difference is that a wolf has to keep track of a huge geographic region that is his pack's range. A dog doesn't need that; his range is very limited. It can be shown that the location correlation structures that wolves depend on are also used for higher cognition. Since dogs don't have as much of that location need and thus less of that structure, they have a lesser abiltiy to use those higher cognitive abilities.

And calling wild turkeys "intelligent" in no way means that they understand what people are, nor what that huge "BOOM" sound they just heard meant.

[Astro-Creep]

They better hope that thing doesn't hurt the chickens. I don't want my nuggets bruised, dammit.

[benb]

Originally posted by theolein:
But they have good grammar. (Joke)

Oh no! You caught me!