Goffin's cockatoos use object mass but not balance cues when making object transport decisions.

Utilising weight cues can improve the efficiency of foraging behaviours by providing information on nutritional value, material strength, and tool functionality. Attending to weight cues may also facilitate the optimisation of object transport. Though some animals' ability to assess weight cues has been determined, research into whether they can apply weight assessment during practical decision making is limited.

Mechanical Problem Solving in Goffin's Cockatoos-Towards Modeling Complex Behavior.

Goffin's cockatoos () can solve a diverse set of mechanical problems, such as tool use, tool manufacture, and mechanical puzzles. However, the proximate mechanisms underlying this adaptive behavior are largely unknown. Similarly, engineering artificial agents that can as flexibly solve such mechanical puzzles is still a substantial challenge in areas such as robotics.

The effect of four different object properties on latency to approach in Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana).

Neophobia and neophilia can be lifesaving as they can facilitate foraging while avoiding predation or intoxication. We investigated the extent to which Goffin's cockatoos () exhibit ecollogically relevant and quantifiable neophobic responses toward specific object properties. Twelve cockatoos were presented with 12 novel objects grouped into four distinct categories with unique features: size, color, reflective capacity, and shape.

Flexible tool set transport in Goffin's cockatoos.

The use of tool sets constitutes one of the most elaborate examples of animal technology, and reports of it in nature are limited to chimpanzees and Goffin's cockatoos. Although tool set use in Goffin's was only recently discovered, we know that chimpanzees flexibly transport tool sets, depending on their need. Flexible tool set transport can be considered full evidence for identification of a genuine tool set, as the selection of the second tool is not just a response to the outcomes of the use of the first tool but implies recognizing the need for both tools before using any of them (thus, categorizing both tools together as a tool set).

Innovative composite tool use by Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana).

Composite tool use (using more than one tool simultaneously to achieve an end) has played a significant role in the development of human technology. Typically, it depends on a number of specific and often complex spatial relations and there are thus very few reported cases in non-human animals (e.g.

Current Understanding of the "Insight" Phenomenon Across Disciplines.

Despite countless anecdotes and the historical significance of insight as a problem solving mechanism, its nature has long remained elusive. The conscious experience of insight is notoriously difficult to trace in non-verbal animals. Although studying insight has presented a significant challenge even to neurobiology and psychology, human neuroimaging studies have cleared the theoretical landscape, as they have begun to reveal the underlying mechanisms.

Death is common, so is understanding it: the concept of death in other species.

Comparative thanatologists study the responses to the dead and the dying in nonhuman animals. Despite the wide variety of thanatological behaviours that have been documented in several different species, comparative thanatologists assume that the concept of death (CoD) is very difficult to acquire and will be a rare cognitive feat once we move past the human species. In this paper, we argue that this assumption is based on two forms of anthropocentrism: (1) an intellectual anthropocentrism, which leads to an over-intellectualisation of the CoD, and (2) an emotional anthropocentrism, which yields an excessive focus on grief as a reaction to death.

Dexterity and technique in termite fishing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo.

Although the phenomenon of termite fishing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) has historical and theoretical importance for primatology, we still have a limited understanding of how chimpanzees accomplish this activity, and in particular, about details of skilled actions and the nature of individual variation in fishing techniques. We examined movements, hand positions, grips, and other details from remote video footage of seven adult and subadult female chimpanzees using plant probes to extract Macrotermes muelleri termites from epigeal nests. Six chimpanzees used exclusively one hand (left or right) to grip the probe during termite fishing.

The bee builds its comb like a crystal.

Stingless bees of the genus construct a brood comb with a spiral or a target pattern architecture in three dimensions. Crystals possess these same patterns on the molecular scale. Here, we show that the same excitable-medium dynamics governs both crystal nucleation and growth and comb construction in , so that a minimal coupled-map lattice model based on crystal growth explains how these bees produce the structures seen in their bee combs.

Ultrastructure of the Interlamellar Membranes of the Nacre of the Bivalve Pteria hirundo, Determined by Immunolabelling.

The current model for the ultrastructure of the interlamellar membranes of molluscan nacre imply that they consist of a core of aligned chitin fibers surrounded on both sides by acidic proteins. This model was based on observations taken on previously demineralized shells, where the original structure had disappeared. Despite other earlier claims, no direct observations exist in which the different components can be unequivocally discriminated.

The shell organic matrix of the crossed lamellar queen conch shell (Strombus gigas).

In molluscs, the shell organic matrix comprises a large set of biomineral-occluded proteins, glycoproteins and polysaccharides that are secreted by the calcifying mantle epithelium, and are supposed to display several functions related to the synthesis of the shell. In the present paper, we have characterized biochemically the shell matrix associated to the crossed-lamellar structure of the giant queen conch Strombus gigas. The acid-soluble (ASM) and acid-insoluble (AIM) matrices represent an extremely minor fraction of the shell.

Crystallographic control on the substructure of nacre tablets.

Nacre tablets of mollusks develop two kinds of features when either the calcium carbonate or the organic portions are removed: (1) parallel lineations (vermiculations) formed by elongated carbonate rods, and (2) hourglass patterns, which appear in high relief when etched or in low relief if bleached. In untreated tablets, SEM and AFM data show that vermiculations correspond to aligned and fused aragonite nanogloblules, which are partly surrounded by thin organic pellicles. EBSD mapping of the surfaces of tablets indicates that the vermiculations are invariably parallel to the crystallographic a-axis of aragonite and that the triangles are aligned with the b-axis and correspond to the advance of the {010} faces during the growth of the tablet.