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Are you looking at me? (4/30/2008)
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| A starling - Photo by Theo Webb |
Birds can tell if you are watching them - because they are watching you.
In humans, the eyes are said to be the 'window to the soul', conveying much about a person's emotions and intentions. New research demonstrates for the first time that starlings also respond to a human's gaze.
Predators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so direct eye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Julia Carter, a PhD student at the University of Bristol, and her colleagues, set up experiments that showed starlings will keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. However, if the person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall.
Carter said "This is a great example of how animals can pick up on very subtle signals and use them to their own advantage". Her results are published online today (30 April) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Wild starlings are highly social and will quickly join others at a productive foraging patch. This leads to foraging situations that are highly competitive. An individual starling that assesses a relatively low predation risk, and responds by returning more quickly to a foraging patch (as in the study), will gain valuable feeding time before others join the patch.
Responses to obvious indicators of risk - a predator looming overhead or the fleeing of other animals - are well documented, but Carter argued that a predator's head orientation and eye-gaze direction are more subtle indicators of risk, and useful since many predators orient their head and eyes towards their prey as they attack.
This research describes the first explicit demonstration of a bird responding to a live predator's eye-gaze direction. Carter added: "By responding to these subtle eye-gaze cues, starlings would gain a competitive advantage over individuals that are not so observant. This work highlights the importance of considering even very subtle signals that might be used in an animal's decision-making process."
Do these birds understand that a human is looking at them, and that they might pose some risk? As yet, this question has not been answered. But whether or not the responses involve some sort of theory of mind, and whether or not they are innate or acquired, the result is that starlings are able to discriminate the very subtle eye-gaze cues of a nearby live predator and adjust their anti-predator responses in a beneficial manner.
This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the University of Bristol.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Bristol University
Comments:
| 1. |
mike |
4/30/2008 11:56:26 AM MST |
how long of research did this take to find out that bird don't like it when a human stares at them when they eat? because most animals that when you walk up to them when there eating they usually don't like it, but if its just because your looking at them people should stop looking at
animals.
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| 2. |
Jason |
4/30/2008 1:04:06 PM MST |
I was wondering myself about how long this took or cost. Because I got new ducks at the house last week and just yesterday I took notice while filling their pool that they wouldn't go into the pool while I was near it while I was looking at them, however if I looked away from them and the pool they got in with me sitting right there. |
| 3. |
Guy |
4/30/2008 1:45:58 PM MST |
Mike and Jason: thanks for your the-world-is-obvious comments. Next time you have earth shattering news, why don't you write up a scientific paper and submit it for peer review instead of complaining like grumpy children.
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| 4. |
janice |
4/30/2008 1:53:42 PM MST |
I led a slightly boring childhood -- chickens will actually close their eyes if you stare at them. yeah, i know... |
| 5. |
Bob |
4/30/2008 1:56:11 PM MST |
I saw a robin and it was red. |
| 6. |
Paul |
4/30/2008 2:13:07 PM MST |
Once a pigeon pooped on me when I wasn't looking at it. |
| 7. |
Erick |
4/30/2008 2:15:11 PM MST |
Right on, Guy. |
| 8. |
Dave Greiman |
4/30/2008 2:21:12 PM MST |
But would the pigeon poop on you if you were looking at it? Better fund a study on that... |
| 9. |
Red |
4/30/2008 2:37:55 PM MST |
I'm not your guy, friend. |
| 10. |
Jethro |
4/30/2008 2:45:55 PM MST |
I have explosive diarrhea, don't look at me. |
| 11. |
Chester |
4/30/2008 2:48:26 PM MST |
I cannot master bait with people watching me unless I'm in the park. |
| 12. |
of course |
4/30/2008 2:54:22 PM MST |
my pet bird exhibits this behavior, it will chip, play, have all the fun in the world with his play balls, until i poke my head around the corner, then he stops everything he is doing and just stares at me. I'll go away and he goes back to what he was doing |
| 13. |
Rees Maxwell |
4/30/2008 3:12:21 PM MST |
[Sorry if this is a double-post, been having difficulty getting this to go through.]
Hey Mike and Jason, if you want to look at animals without disturbing them, try using what is sometimes called 'Owl Eyes' or 'wide-angle vision.' (See Jon Young or Tom Brown, Jr.) It's about using your peripheral vision. When we look at something, we usually only have that central portion of our view in mind, and let all the rest go. It's as if we are looking through a tube.
Here's an exercise which will help you get to the point where you can really view birds and other animals without them getting distressed:
Try right now looking out your window across the street. Choose a tree or something to have in the central portion of your view, and then allow your eyes to relax a bit and begin noticing: what is to the left and right of your central focal point? What is above and below? How far in each direction can you see, without moving your eyes from the central focal object? How much detail can you pick out? Is this getting easy? Now see if you can stay in wide-angle vision while moving your eyes across the landscape.
With a bit of practice you'll find that you notice more things going on around you. I find having my 'Owl Eyes' on when I'm out birding helps me spot them much easier.
Have fun!
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| 14. |
Lady Leopard |
4/30/2008 4:10:18 PM MST |
Well Gentlemen.... As a bird breeder this is interesting... for a hunter even more!
But as a breeder of pigeons, chickens, and ducks this does make sense they have a need for survival. Yet, it if you take this one more step and hand raise them this is not an issue! As they do not see you as predator.
LL
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| 15. |
Joe |
4/30/2008 6:15:35 PM MST |
I,m not your friend, buddy. |
| 16. |
Ririd |
5/1/2008 5:20:27 AM MST |
Cyclists down-under get dive-bombed from behind by Austalian magpies during the breeding season. (Of the magpies, not the cyclists, who breed all year round.) The magpies draw blood and have caused nasty accidents on long descents. Attacks can be prevented by fixing fake eyeballs to the back of the cyclist's helmet. The magpies only attack from behind. |
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