NOVA

Birds that craft tools and pick locks are rewriting the rules of animal intelligence.  

Inside Animal Minds: Bird Genius

Birds that craft tools and pick locks are rewriting the rules of animal intelligence.    Airing April 9, 2014 at 9 pm on PBS

Birds that craft tools and pick locks are rewriting the rules of animal intelligence.

Animal Minds: Birds Preview

Carlisle Companies

Viking

NOVA Science Trust Logo

(Program not available for streaming.) When it comes to intelligence, we humans are clearly the most gifted animals around. But what make us so special? Is it our ability to make and use tools? To solve complex problems? Or plan for the future? It might seem that way, but today, researchers are discovering other creatures with impressive brains that have mastered all those skills. Surprisingly, many are bird brains. Crows bend and shape sticks to create custom-made spears for hunting grubs, and they are just one among a growing list of bird species whose impressive problem-solving abilities are shocking scientists and revolutionizing our understanding of animal intelligence. At the head of the class, we meet animals like Muppet, a cockatoo with a talent for picking locks; 007, a wild crow on a mission to solve an eight-step puzzle for the first time ever; and Bran, a tame raven who can solve a puzzle box so quickly that his performance has to be captured with high-speed photography. But are these skills really evidence of high intelligence, or just parlor tricks, the result of training and instinct? To find out, NOVA tests the limits of some of the planet's brainiest animals, searching for the secrets of a problem-solving mind.

University of Vienna

Bird Trainer

University of Cambridge

Primatologist

Animal Cognition Researcher

University of Gloucestershire

University of Nebraska

University of Auckland

University of Oxford

Birds that craft tools and pick locks are rewriting the rules of animal intelligence.

Animal Minds: Birds

Nature

Why do some dogs have short fur, others long tails, and still others wrinkly faces? Many dogs were bred to perform a specific tasks--from hunting vermin to wrangling bulls--and their physical characteristics were chosen to help them do their jobs.

Learn about the traits we most prize in dogs, and the bizarre jobs they were bred for. 

Five Dogs With Crazy Résumés

How do birds manage to fly through narrow spaces without constantly bumping into trees or buildings? It turns out that they use a trick of the eye called optic flow. Understanding what optic flow is and how birds use it could help us build a safer world for our feathered friends.

Birds use a trick of the eye called “optic flow” to zip through forests without colliding.

The Mysteries of Optic Flow

Mysteries of Optic Flow

How do dogs, sharks, dolphins, or birds experience the world? Airing April 16, 2014 at 9 pm on PBS

How do dogs, sharks, dolphins, or birds experience the world?

Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses

How do dogs, sharks, dolphins, or birds experience the world?     Airing April 16, 2014 at 9 pm on PBS

How do dogs, sharks, dolphins, or birds experience the world? 

Animal Minds: Dogs Preview

(Program not available for streaming.) What is it like to be a dog, a shark, or a bird? Long the subject of human daydreams, this question is now getting serious attention from scientists who study animal senses. The senses define our experience of the world—they shape our minds, and help make us what we are. Humans rely on smell, sight, taste, touch, and sound, but other animals have super-powered versions of these senses, and a few, like electrically-sensitive sharks, even have extra senses we don't have at all. From a dog who seems to use smell to tell time, to a dolphin who can "see" with his ears, we will discover how animals use their senses in ways we humans can barely imagine. But it's not just the senses that are remarkable—it's the brains that process them. How does a swallow's tiny, one-gram brain take in the flood of visual information that enables the bird to whiz within inches of buildings while flying at 40 miles per hour? How does a dog's mind turn the sight of a hand signal into the happy anticipation of a treat? How has the evolution of the dog—from its wolf ancestors–reshaped its brain? NOVA goes into the minds of animals to "see" the world in an entirely new way.

Emory University

Barnard College, Columbia University

University of Massachusetts

National Search and Rescue Dog Association

Marine Biologist

Dolphin Research Center

Comprehensive Pet Therapy

University of Exeter

SharkDefense

How do dogs, sharks, dolphins, or birds experience the world?

Animal Minds: Dogs

What makes an animal smart? What forces of evolution drive brains to become more complex? Many scientists believe the secret lies in our relationships. Throughout the animal kingdom, some of the cleverest creatures—including humans—seem to be those who live in complex social groups, like dolphins, elephants, and apes. Could the skills required to keep track of friend and foe make animals smarter?

In this series, go inside the brains of three smart animals—dogs, birds, and dolphins.

Inside Animal Minds: Who's the Smartest?

Explore the social lives of some of the smartest animals on the planet.     Airing April 23, 2014 at 9 pm on PBS

Explore the social lives of some of the smartest animals on the planet.

Animal Minds: Smartest Preview

(Program no longer available for online streaming.) What makes an animal smart? What forces of evolution drive brains to become more complex? Many scientists believe the secret lies in our relationships. Throughout the animal kingdom, some of the cleverest creatures—including humans—seem to be those who live in complex social groups, like dolphins, elephants, and apes. Could the skills required to keep track of friend and foe make animals smarter? To find out, NOVA goes inside the social lives of some of the smartest animals on the planet. Off the coast of Florida, we see dolphins team up to catch fish by whipping up a wall of muddy water that drives the meal right into their companions' waiting mouths. It seems that the dolphins are working together to plan their hunt. But are they really? Biologists go on a quest to decipher the secrets of animal societies, from the seas of the Caribbean to the plains of Africa. Do dolphins and elephants have "language?" Do chimps have a sense of fairness? And are any animals besides ourselves capable of feeling empathy?

Dolphin Communication Project

University of St. Andrews

Neuroscientist

University of Sussex

Hunter College

Explore the social lives of some of the smartest animals on the planet.

Animal Minds: Smartest

What would it be like to go inside the mind of an animal? Now, the revolutionary science of animal cognition is revealing hard evidence about how animals understand the world around them, uncovering their remarkable problem-solving abilities, and exploring the complexity of their powers of communication and even their emotions. In the three-hour special "Inside Animal Minds," NOVA explores these breakthroughs through three iconic creatures: dogs, birds, and dolphins. We'll travel into the spectacularly nuanced noses of dogs and wolves and ask whether their reliance on different senses has shaped their evolution. We'll see through the eyes of a starling in flight and test the tool-using skills of one of the smartest birds, the crow. We'll listen in as scientists track dolphins in the Caribbean and elephants on the African savannah, trying to unlock the secrets of animal communication. As we discover how researchers are pushing the animal mind to its limits, we'll uncover surprising similarities to—and differences from—the human mind.

In this series, go inside the brains of three smart animals—dogs, birds, and dolphins.

Explore Inside Animal Minds

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