Indeed. I'd say a mixture of people having more time to study such things as well as people getting over the idea that we have nothing to learn from animals. I

Indeed. I'd say a mixture of people having more time to study such things as well as people getting over the idea that we have nothing to learn from animals. I study animal intelligence as sort of a hobby in my free time and have focused on birds lately since they seem to get less recognition for intelligence than mammals or other animals that dominate television shows. Everyone knows parrots can mimic, but little mainstream news goes beyond that. Corvids (jays[1], crows[2], starlings, etc) can actually mimic in a similar manner. Birds in general are quite misrepresented and phrases like "eat like a bird" or "bird brained" are quite incorrect. We all come from the same basic building blocks through evolution, so it would be quite weird to say that we don't share traits with our fellow animals. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T6pUxthClw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T6pUxthClw [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgTCoTD3BWI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgTCoTD3BWI