teaching young to hunt, 302
training ravens not to eat, 151–52
ter Pelkwyk, Joost, 184–85
Terrace, Herbert, 131
territorial mimicry, 110
territory, 60, 198–199
Thalar, Ellen, 185
Thapar, Valmik, 170, 172
Ibis (journal), 302
Thinking Ape, The (Byrne), 303n
Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall, 60, 86–87, 260, 317
Thomsett, Simon, 283–84
Thorndike, Edward, 18
thrushes, 107, 143, 216
tigers
associate light with cattle, 7–8
imprinting and, 76
learn about sex, 278–79
learn predation skills, 164–66, 168–72, 176–77, 347, 348
learn to drag carcass, 181
learn to hunt, 141–42
learn to open carcass, 181
learn to see, 2
learn specialty foods, 156
man-eating, 210–11
rehabilitation and, 267
social environment and, 348–49
social play and, 52
what is needed to learn to survive, 347–49
Tilson, Ron, 141, 279
titmouse, 316, 342
tits (chickadees), 316
black robins raised by, 71, 72
learning by young, 300
peck open milk bottles, 16–17
vocal communication and, 92, 100
toads, 63
Todd, John, 198–99
Todt, Dietmar, 126
Tolman, E. C., 11
Tomasello, Michael, 247, 271–72
tools, 217–44
birds vs. primates and, 342
blue jays and, 209–10
bonobos and, 219–20
capuchin monkeys and, 228–32
changing views of animals and, 217–18
chimpanzees and, 212, 222–27, 249
cichlids and, 234
cockatoos and, 232–233
crows and, 235–37, 311–12
dolphins and, 233–34
eagles and, 238
elephants and, 234–35
gorillas and, 218–219
intelligent, 218
ladder made by chimpanzees, 226–227
language and, 218
macaques and, 221, 232
nests and burrows and, 239–43
object play and, 51
orangutans and, 220–21
otters and, 233
ravens and, 237–38
social play and, 53–54
stone, made by bonobos, 227–28
thrushes and, 216
vultures and, 238–39
tortoises, 73
towhee (chewink), 189
training of animals, by humans, 304–9.
See also specific animals and skills
trap happiness, 205–7
trial and error, 2, 30
defined, 12
hunting and, 319–20
imitation vs., 22
play and, 49–50
triggerfish, 163
Tulley, J. J., 202
turns, taking, 54
turtles, 57–58, 61
Tyack, Peter, 118
Varty, John, 164, 165
Victoria (tiger), 76, 347
Viki (chimpanzee), 23, 124, 187–88
Visalberghi, Elisabetta, 213, 229, 230, 231
vocal communication
birds and dialects, 100–101
birds and new songs, 100
birds and wrong songs, 100
codes and signals and, 115–17
duets and, 113–14
female birdsong and, 99
isolation and birdsong and, 98
mammals and birds learn, 92
mimicry and, 106–13
signature whistles and, 117–19
songbird templates and, 95–97
sound of mother’s voice and, 93
sound of neighbors and, 94–95
sound of siblings and, 93–94
subsong and babbling, 97–98
teaching apes to speak, 123–125
teaching parrot to speak, 125–26
vocal learning
birds and humans amd, 136
birds vs. primates and, 343
dolphins and whales, 343
Voelkl, Bernhard, 19
voles, 292–93, 296–97 “voting posture,” 263–64
vultures
fear of, by birds, 191
learning where to find food, 158
tool use by, 217, 238–39
Waal, Frans de, 5, 12, 17, 214, 247, 256, 272
walking, 34–36, 294–95
wallabies, 46, 194–95
Wallace, Mike, 269
walrus, 92
warblers
black robin eggs and, 71
nest parasitism and, 80
object play and, 49
vocal communication and, 92
young help parents with next clutch, 292
Washington Post, 197n
Washoe (chimpanzee), 128, 332
wasp, 217
Wasser, Samuel, 52
water, learning about, 32–33
waterbuck, 193
wattle-eye, 107
Wayre, Philip, 44
weaning, 288–89
weaver, village, 241–43
Weidensaul, Scott, 303n
Weisbord, Merrily, 64
West, researcher, 98
Western Birds (journal), 235
whales
bubbles used as tools by, 51
cross-fostered by dolphins, 80
deception and 335
duets, 114
elders and, 248
hunting by, 216–17
intelligence of, 343
mimicry and, 112–13
object play and, 49
song fads and, 254–55
vocal communication and, 92
“What’s So Special about Using Tools?” (Hansell), 217
whipbirds, 108
White, Jan, 283
Whitehead, Hal, 45, 49
Whiten, Andrew, 329, 330
Wickler, Wolfgang, 113, 344, 345
wildebeest, 87, 193
Wilderness Family, The (Krüger), 16, 173
wildlife rehabilitation, xi
California condors and, 268–69
chimpanzees and, 267–68
culture and, as obstacle, 267
imprinting and, 65–66, 77–78
learning environment and, 143–45
learning to fear humans and, 200–202
orangutan and, 269–71
owls and learning what to hunt, 306–7
social gaffs and, 259–60
teaching animals to spot predators and, 194–97
Wilkinson, Mrs., 108
Wilson, Susan, 47
“win-shift” vs. “win-stay” strategy, 318–19
Winters, Patricia, 295–96
Wolfie (dog), 140, 174, 175, 193
wolves
adoption by, 284
moose teaches young to fear, 197–98
pointing and, 140
rehabilitation and, 145
social play and, 52
vocal communication and, 94–95
woodpeckers, 343
Wrangham, Richard, 56
wrens, striped-back, 249–50
Wylie, Philip, 317
Yamakoshi, Gen, 225
Year of the Greylag Goose, The (Lorenz), 44
Yoerg, Sonja, 8, 160, 317, 318
Zann, Richard, 79, 96
About the Author
SUSAN MCCARTHY is the coauthor (with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson) of the New York Times bestseller When Elephants Weep. She holds degrees in biology and journalism, writes regularly for Salon.com, and has contributed to The Best American Science Writing. She lives in San Francisco.
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PRAISE FOR
Becoming a Tiger
“Throughout Susan McCarthy’s Becoming a Tiger, I was alternately amazed at her long succession of animal anecdotes and made uneasy by the feeling that we humans are only guessing at the private lives of other species. Readers will long for a conversation with the otter that searches for the perfect stone with which to bash its dinner, the chimp that fashions a tool to probe a mound of dirt for a termite lunch, the gazelle that learns about cheetahs by mobbing them—safety in numbers—to know how they look and smell, and the little songbird that expands its brain every year to learn new springtime tunes.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“Becoming a Tiger takes a fascinating area of exploration—how we all, as animals, learn—and brings it to life in all its richness. The individual stories are both intimate and surprising, and the book as a whole illuminates the ways all of earth’s learning creatures share such important commonalities…and differences. Susan McCarthy’s deep appreciation of the process of learning and the ways that learning joins us sings from each page.”
—Dawn Prince-Hughes, Ph.D., author of Gorillas Among Us: A Primate Ethnographer’s Book of Days and Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism
“Susan McCarthy knows more about animals than anyone I have ever met. She also writes beautifully, is unwilling to say anything she is not absolutely certain to be correct, and carries out meticulous research. But beyond all that she has an eye for the unusual, for what other writers have passed over, which means that she is never dull or conventional, no matter what she is writing about.”
—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Ph.D., coauthor of When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
ALSO BY SUSAN McCARTHY
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (coauthor with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson)
Copyright
BECOMING A TIGER. Copyright © 2004 by Susan McCarthy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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* “Used to play,” he says.
* In the 1970s students of animal behavior got a collective crush on computer metaphors, which shows no sign of letting up.
† They learned to trust me so well that I could never scare them into “playing possum.”
* Chance also plays a role that is often overlooked.
* Chickens in a Hawaiian tourist attraction have been taught to “hula.”
* These goggled hoods looked very much like World War I aviator helmets but were not accessorized with a long dashing scarf.
* The birds called tits in Britain are called chickadees in North America. One trusts in the refinement of the American reader in this regard.
* They were in North America.
* They obeyed. They saw what happened to the sea slug.
* One thing animals never do when attempting a difficult task is read the manual, but this is true of so many people.
* When I say “teenaged,” I don’t necessarily mean it literally. I mean animals almost as big as grown-ups, but without adult powers and responsibilities.
* Female mice whose parents wore Parma Violet perfume (thanks to the efforts of refined researchers) grew up to prefer male mice who wore that same aftershave.
* I would never do this.
* Jane Goodall often employs pant-hoots to add a multilingual aspect to her lectures.
* Ravens’ song is also varied. It has been said that if you are in the wilderness and hear a completely inexplicable noise, you should assume it is a raven.
* Apparently Ika was not a morning bonobo.
* But a nice idea. I honor you for the thought.
* The other shocking discovery of the day was that he was perfectly capable of using the potty when necessary. Parents of toddlers may find this more impressive than mastery of symbols.
* The onespot fringehead would make a great spokesanimal for a pro-litter campaign, should you wish to conduct one.
* “Chough” is pronounced “chuff.” Not my idea.
* It has not escaped Varty and Salmoni’s attention that tigers are not native to Africa. They don’t plan to release them there, but to breed them in a semiwild captivity in which they develop their predatory skills.
* In other words, the way to become a tiger may be to have a better role model than a dog.
* It is unclear whether Tara was descended from Indian tigers, as Singh writes that he was assured. It is said that testing has shown Siberian tiger genes present in wild tigers now living in the area, a source of great displeasure for those who hope to save not only the tiger but the different subspecies of tiger.
* This species, Philemon corniculatus, is also called the noisy friarbird or the leather head. As the name “honeyeater” suggests, it is fond of nectar and flowers, but it is not above snatching nestlings from other birds’ nests, so mob away.
* When the Washington Post did a sympathetic story on ferret recovery work, it called the stuffed badger model RoboBadger. The story also mentioned the rubber bands. An alert reader sent this story to columnist Dave Barry, who derived a staggering amount of humor out of the rubber bands, RoboBadger, and the Thanksgiving holiday season. (Barry, 1989). In the hallowed what-will-these-eggheads-come-up-with-next tradition, Barry wrote, “So we’re talking about people who probably look perfectly normal, who have normal children and wear normal clothes and drive normal cars to a normal-looking building where they go inside and shoot rubber bands at ferrets. I bet they also argue over who gets to drive RoboBadger.” Not so. In Prairie Night, a thoughtful exploration of the ferret project and endangered species recovery projects in general, the sole endnote for the chapter on predator avoidance training reads: “In answer to Dave Barry’s speculation, we did not fight over who ran the badger—we took turns.”
Becoming a Tiger: The Education of an Animal Child Page 55
