Birds
Don't Piss Off a Mockingbird
There has been speculation for many decades about whether non-human animals were capable of identifying specific members of another species. In what may be the first published account of this ability, biology professor Doug Levy, study leader, proclaims that an investigation of mockingbird behavior shows the birds capable of identifying humans how had previously visited their nests (and thus, agitated the birds).
Mockingbirds can remember people who have threatened them and even start dive-bombing them if they see the person again, a study has found.
An urban population of the songbirds ignored most passers-by, but took to the air when they recognised people who had approached their nest days before.
When the birds spotted a previous offender, they started screeching and set off to harass the person with swooping dives, at times grazing the tops of their heads.
The extraordinary behaviour, reported in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is thought to be the first published account of wild animals in their natural setting recognising individuals of another species.
