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Are We the Only Animals That Understand Ignorance?
The Atlantic: You’re holding a surprise party for a friend. The door opens, the lights flick on, everyone leaps out… and your friend stands there silent and unmoved. Now,you’re the one who’s surprised. You assumed
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Do Monkeys Know When They Don’t Know Something?
Are humans the only animal that knows what they don’t know? A study by researchers at Yale and Harvard shows that rhesus monkeys also spontaneously recognize when they are ignorant and need to seek out
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Infants Learn Better When Listening to Human Speech—or Lemurs
Pacific Standard: Babies are born knowing very little about the world or what to pay attention to—they’re not blank slates, but they’re not exactly full ones either. A good example is faces: When they’re just
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Ticklish Primates, Social Fish and Other Secrets of Animal Intelligence
The Wall Street Journal: The severed arm of an octopus can crawl on its own and grab food. Elephants can distinguish between people based on age, language and gender. Crows are adept at using tools.
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Should You Hug Your Dog?
The New York Times: The next time you want to hug a dog, consider this: You could be making the pooch miserable, an expert says. To the average dog lover, the animals’ floppy ears and
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What I Learned From Tickling Apes
The New York Times: TICKLING a juvenile chimpanzee is a lot like tickling a child. The ape has the same sensitive spots: under the armpits, on the side, in the belly. He opens his mouth