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It does:[1] > One question his team could not answer, however, was why crows that are reproductively compatible were sorting themselves according to color. Som
by sinyug 5y ago
It does:[1]
> One question his team could not answer, however, was why crows that are reproductively compatible were sorting themselves according to color. Some people had asked Wolf if the crows were “racist.” He didn’t want to apply such a loaded human concept to animals. Still, the crows did discriminate in their way. Carrion crows wanted to mate with carrion crows, and hooded crows wanted to mate with hooded crows. How could color variation based on such a tiny genetic difference have such a large effect? Wolf thought the answer lay not in the genome but, rather, in the field he had left behind: animal behavior.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210925220241/https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/where-do-species-come-from https://web.archive.org/web/20210925220241/https://www.newyo...
- AlbertCory 5y agoIndeed, there's a suggestion there that "preferring members of the species that look like you" is inherent behavior, which can be unlearned (witness the popular Nature special about animals of different species that hang out together -- the goat that leads a blind horse around, the dog & the cheetah that play together).
- sinyug 5y ago> which can be unlearned Sure it can. But you are only ever going to see it among a tiny minority in any given population (animal or human).