University of Illinois Extension’s Post

On #WorldAnimalDay, learn more about the science of animal emotions and communication: https://ow.ly/I8xr50TtRsU

How magic can help us understand animal minds: By performing tricks for birds, monkeys and other creatures, researchers hope to learn how they perceive and think about their world. Learn more about this in our recent article recommended by JSTOR Daily

From our recommended reading list: "The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion – Surprising Observations of a Hidden World" by Peter Wohlleben This book explores the little known facts about animal interaction and reactions. Although it anthropomorphizes the lives of animals, it endears us to their existence and experience and provokes a sentiment that we should exercise greater care when interacting with other life forms. Read if you want to develop a more impassioned ecological worldview. See more from our recommended book list: https://lnkd.in/gUS3C-nr #thevenusproject #venusproject #oprojetovenus #elproyectovenus #resourcebasedeconomy #roxannemeadows #ПроектВенера

In 2018, an orca named Tahlequah gained global attention when she carried her deceased calf for over two weeks, illustrating a behavior that many humans found deeply relatable. Philosopher Susana Monsó suggests that this behavior hints at a rudimentary understanding of death in animals, a topic she explores in her new book, Playing Possum. Monsó, a proponent of “comparative thanatology” (the study of animals' relationship with death), argues that many animal species respond to death beyond basic survival instincts. From chimpanzees’ careful examination of a deceased group member to ants automatically removing dead ants from their colony, Monsó notes that various species show diverse but consistent responses to death, challenging the belief that awareness of mortality is uniquely human. Monsó’s research redefines the boundaries of animal cognition by suggesting that animals may possess a “minimal concept of death” — a basic recognition of the irreversible difference between living and dead beings. While some animals, like ants, respond to chemical signals without understanding death, others, like chimps, display behavioral changes that imply an awareness of the deceased’s changed state. These behaviors, such as deceased-infant carrying observed in mammalian mothers, raise questions about grief and loss across species. Monsó’s work suggests that recognizing mortality as a shared experience could reshape our understanding of death and grief, making it a universal rather than a uniquely human phenomenon. Could examining animals' responses to death challenge how we view our grief and mortality, perhaps even softening our sense of separateness from other species?

We are by now quite familiar with devices and apps that can translate speech from one language to another. But the team at the Earth Species Project (https://lnkd.in/eb3SDabq) are going one step further and carrying out research which could eventually allow two-way communication between humans and animals. In this fascinating talk, Masato Hagiwara introduces the "Inter-Species Phonetic Alphabet for Transcribing Animal Sounds" (ISPA) as an important preliminary step towards developing LLMs for animal languages by treating them in the same way as human foreign languages. https://lnkd.in/eC8cKtTV

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 | 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗱𝗼𝗺: 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 Miss Bhattarai, a grade VI student provided the insights on the classification of Vertebrate animals. In the video, she explained about the five classes of Vertebrates along with the characteristics and the examples. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿: 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗕𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗶 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝘆: 𝗥𝗶𝘁𝘂 𝗣𝘂𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿: 𝗦𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝘆: 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝗯 #DSS #RegularFriday

The Home Office recently updated the guidance for researchers applying for licences to conduct scientific procedures on animals. Legally a researcher should be exploring and using alternative, non-animal methods where they exist instead. Therefore in the licence they evidence this... but in little detail. FRAME believe that more specific requirements on what evidence should be provided in licences would help researchers demonstrate how they considered replacement options, and help reviewers assess this more robustly. A report last year showed reviewers struggle to review replacement as it is tricky to know about all the different scientific approaches available and how they could be used.. extra information would help. Small steps can have impact. #research #science #regulation #3Rs #animalfree #nonanimalresearch #policy

No, we are not evolving from simian, but we human (sapien) are simian-alike (a bit) in terms of bipedalism and specific digits (read: fingers) attached to the end of pectoral extensions (arms-hands-palms consequently). Whilst animal evolution collectively had reached its completion cf. human's, human evolution is yet to be determinantly ascertained; so the easiest correlation is to observe and study the speed and maybe the path of the previously-mentioned animal evolution to estimately, simply, chart the PROGRESS & PATH of THE human evolution...(can be confusing at some point; do not get to carried over by the salient-ness & sentient-ness nature of nature of progress and the salient-ness & sentient-ness nature of progress of nature). Darwinism is not wrong but multitudes of what-ifs can skew the noble theory; let alone theorems that led to the said noble theory.

The evolution of the nervous system may have followed multiple paths and risen independently in two early lineages of animals, according to a Science study in comb jellies. Check out that research from last year: https://scim.ag/6ES #ScienceMagArchives

[My first animal dissection] | January 13, 2012 [Conversation with my supervisor before starting my first animal experiment] Dr. Kabir (to me): Oo Raihan! Come here. {He called me in his specific style} Me: Yes sir. Dr. Kabir: You should not start animal experiment right now. It’s too early. Me: Sir, I can do it. Dr. Kabir: NoOo, you can not do. You think you know but still you don’t know many things. It’s not as easy as you are thinking. Me: Sir you have shown me whole procedure some days before. Let me try. Dr. Kabir: Ok. Do, do! But remember for the next time you should not be hurry while doing science. Dr. Kabir: Ok sir. Thank you! (....accidentally the procedure was successful..warna meri tou khair nai thi)