Fun Fact #1: Raccoon Intelligence
Raccoons are well known little mammals, easily recognized by their bandit like mask around their eyes, striped tails, and nimble behavior. Raccoons are members of the family Procyonidae, which also includes coatis and ringtails, and are the largest animals included. One thing that Raccoons are very well known for, as any individual who has had the misfortune of dealing with them as household pests will tell you, is their remarkable intelligence. Raccoons, in a series of studies in the 1960's, were found to be able to figure out relatively complex locks and puzzles, solving them in 10-11 tries, and remembering how to solve them for up to three years.
This makes them very resilient pests around suburban and urban areas as well. I myself saw one special where the entry methods of raccoons were recorded as they attempted to enter a backyard and mess about in the koi pond there. At first, the home owners simply places trellis over the pool at night, weighing it down with rocks. The raccoons figured out, however, that this was easy to defeat, as all one needed to do was lift it up on the edge and crawl underneath. They also tried motion sensitive lights to scare the raccoons if they approached, also to no avail. The animals simply avoided parts of the yard that triggered the lights. A similar technique was tried by installing tiny turret canisters around the planters and pond, which would spin quickly and noisily in a circle when triggered, spraying a chemical irritant. Did this stop the raccoons? Nay nay. They simply figured out the radius of the turrets, which was only a couple of feet, that was required to activate them. Then, they would simply find areas of the perimeter where there were large gaps between the turrets, and stroll on through. Impressive, no?Fun Fact #2: Raven Intelligence
I've always liked Ravens, despite their reputation as common annoyances, or harbingers of death. Their physical stature is impressive, especially since they are the largest members of the corvid family, which encompasses ravens, crows, and magpies. Also interesting is the impressive range of the raven: they're found nearly worldwide, a feat only achieved by rats and a few other species. The reason for this, in addition to their opportunistic and adaptable behavior, is their immensely impressive intelligence.
They may seem like dumb birds, walking about on the ground, squawking and picking at trash, but under those glossy black feathers lies one of the most intelligent avian minds in the world, even when compared to other intellectual feathered heavyweights like the African Gray Parrot. This is due to their very large brain, as well as the nature of the intelligence they display. You see, unlike many animals, ravens do not learn by "trial and error", wherein they go at a problem repeatedly until they get it right. Instead they are innovators, and are actually able to look at a problem and solve it mentally by thinking about it. For instance, in one experiment, a raven was placed on a table, and a piece of food was hung from the edge of the table on a length of string. The string was too long for the bird to simply reach down and grab it, and too short to reach from the ground. What the raven figured out how to do was thus to grab the string, and pin it with it's foot as it hauled up more string, incrementally pulling the food up onto the table. In Japan, ravens have even learned how to read and utilize stop lights. They often eat nuts that have uncrackable shells, you see, and when they are unable to open these nuts, they will often take them to somewhere like an intersection. There, they will wait for a red light, and then fly down to one of the cars and place the nut under the wheel. They will then wait for the light to cycle from red to green back to red, and then fly down to pick up the smashed nut to eat. And in another test...well, just watch while the british lady narrates:Awesome, huh? So, the next time you see one of our feathered friends, just remember: they're probably alot smarter than most of the class of 2010...
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