Source: Xinhua
04-05-2009 15:24
Special Report: Tech MaxWASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- We all know that people sometimes change their behavior when someone is looking their way. Now, a new study released on Thursday in the online edition of U.S. journal Current Biology, shows that jackdaws -- birds related to crows and ravens with eyes that appear similar to human eyes -- can do the same.
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| UK study finds bird can "read" human gaze |
"Jackdaws seem to recognize the eye's role in visual perception, or at the very least they are extremely sensitive to the way that human eyes are oriented," said Auguste von Bayern, formerly of the University of Cambridge and now at the University of Oxford.
When presented with a preferred food, hand-raised jackdaws took significantly longer to retrieve the reward when a person was directing his eyes toward the food than when he was looking away, according to the research team led by Nathan Emery of the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London. The birds hesitated only when the person in question was unfamiliar and thus potentially threatening.
In addition, the birds were able to interpret human communicative gestures, such as gaze alternation and pointing, to help them find hidden food, the researchers found. The birds were unsuccessful in using static cues, including eye gaze or head orientation, in that context.
