Earlier quoted context omitted.
What animals use language?
Almost all of them. Which animals does not communicate verbally or with gestures or similar language constructs?
Rainworms
Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
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Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#32So we're not the only: - tool-using animal - fire-using animal - language-using animal - animal which domesticates other animals - animal which builds complex structures Aha! I know! We're the only animal which continually comes up with reasons why we're special.
How about: -art (cave paintings, etc) -music it's striking to see 6-12 month old infants bopping up and down to music. They're not taught to do this and I've never heard of animals responding to music...
Science? Engineering? Space travel? And we're only just getting started. Wait for climate engineering and asteroid / Lunar mining...
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
What animals use language?
Almost all of them. Which animals does not communicate verbally or with gestures or similar language constructs?
Careful there with the phrasing. When we talk about animals communicating we generally mean animals using signals (e.g. to indicate the presence of a predator or a source of food). I'm not aware of any reliably documented case of animals communicating abstract concepts.
There is some research with great apes that makes the rounds every now and then but the findings are dubious at best as there's a lot of conflict of interest, handwaving and wishful thinking (see Koko "mourning" when told that Robin Williams died because they met once at some point in the past).
EDIT: Also it's probably a good idea to limit the conversation to social animals. Solitary animals don't have much use for communication other than challenging the competition and impressing potential mates -- insert celebrity joke here.
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha, this has been a well-trod rant of mine for years. Don't forget scorpions, vampire bats, great white sharks, and the world's top 4 deadliest jellyfish!
I grew up in Darwin and lived to tell the tale. It's really very simple. Here is a diagram: [place where bad things are] [me] So long as I am not doing something dumb like going near an estuarine river filled with invisible deathbeasts, or getting into an ocean filled with transparently-tentacled murder-squigglies, or stomping through grass near logs with dozing fangjectors, I will be fine. It's just not difficult.
Your diagram got me a bit confused as the empty space was right over the fold and I was wondering why the comments wouldn't load and what a weird error [place where bad things are] is.
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#35I don't have full-text access so I can only read the abstract. Why would a bird want to spread a forest fire?
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#36So we're not the only: - tool-using animal - fire-using animal - language-using animal - animal which domesticates other animals - animal which builds complex structures Aha! I know! We're the only animal which continually comes up with reasons why we're special.
How about: -art (cave paintings, etc) -music it's striking to see 6-12 month old infants bopping up and down to music. They're not taught to do this and I've never heard of animals responding to music...
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#37I don't have full-text access so I can only read the abstract. Why would a bird want to spread a forest fire?
To get the prey running into the open.
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#38So we're not the only: - tool-using animal - fire-using animal - language-using animal - animal which domesticates other animals - animal which builds complex structures Aha! I know! We're the only animal which continually comes up with reasons why we're special.
We are special though. Birds carrying burning sticks to spread fires is significantly different from humans: -Starting fires -Using fire to process food -Using fire to process raw materials into something that can be used for tools, structures etc.
Give them time; we took ours.
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#39I don't have full-text access so I can only read the abstract. Why would a bird want to spread a forest fire?
Because the fire flushes out small prey that the bird can catch and eat. This applies to snakes, small animals, and insects, all of which this species of bird and others can feed upon.
Re: Intentional Fire-Spreading by “Firehawk” Raptors in Northern Australia
#40I don't have full-text access so I can only read the abstract. Why would a bird want to spread a forest fire?
I’m in the same boat as you, but in the book Sapiens it’s written that bush fires in Australia are started to force animals out of the forest and to create plains where they can be more effectively hunted in the future. Maybe the birds do this too (or learned it from people?)