Do animals develop tactics?

[Leonel]

I hear ant's utilize tactics like sending a first wave and then flanking the enemy with a second wave.

 

[IroquoisPlisken]

And bees do their dance to tell others where nectar is.

 

[El_Machinae]

Ravens live longer than wolves, and I've heard of a raven 'adopting' cubs from a pack, and training them how to hunt better (and helping them hunt) - so the raven could get the carrion.

Over the generations, it would train successive litters.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I never heard of that before.

 

[El_Machinae]

The symbiosis that was thought to exist between humans and ravens also exists between ravens and wolves, for similar reasons. One "partner" provides a service that increases the ability of both to secure food, and thus survive. Native American traditions tell of ravens leading wolves to potential prey such as caribou. Ravens then listen for the howl of the wolf pack that indicates they have brought down prey. The raven then flies to share in the feast.

Ravens in Canada and Alaska have been observed playing a tag-like game with coyotes and wolves. Ravens wait for wolves to fall asleep and then pounce upon them, pulling the tails or ears. The annoyed wolves in turn chase the ravens. It is a game with no clear survival benefit, but one that is apparently entertaining for both. Ravens will also chase wolves, flying just out of reach of snapping jaws. In his study of raven-and-wolf interplay at Isle Royal, L.D. Mech explains that ravens and wolves travel together and seem to enjoy interacting with one another.

Linkable

I'm having trouble finding a good citation, on-line. So take my statement with a grain of salt.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

The Vikings used to believe that Valkyries were ravens and that their steeds were wolves.

 

[IglooDame]

According to the Civilopedia, education is what separates us from animals -- when we learnt how to communicate what we have learnt to others we began to advance ourselves. Even if a particular hyena has an awesome idea for how to make a lasergun that would one-shot an entire pride of lions, there's no way that he could communicate it to others. And even if he did make it, there's no way he could pass the knowledge to future generations. That's according to the CIVILOPEDIA people! Q.E.D.

He could communicate it through demonstration. I don't see why a particularly smart tactician could not permanently improve their pack's chances through demonstration and repetition, much as oral histories were passed down through generations of humans without ever being written down.

 

[CaptainF]

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Nah, just playing, but seriously, isn't the answer obvious?

 

[Marla_Singer]

Perfectly similar dolphins adopt different techniques of hunting considering the ocean in which they are located. Those techniques are learnt in copying the elder generations and are dissimilar according to location. I've heard a zoologist on radio which stated that those different techniques of hunting according to location could very decently be considered as different cultures, as it fully fits to the definition used for mankind.

 

[7ronin]

If you look just at the ability to "learn" as opposed to military tactics, octopi have shown an amazing ability to open jars after observing how to do it.

 

[The Yankee]

Nah, just playing, but seriously, isn't the answer obvious?

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[Marla_Singer]

Oh the Yankee ! You're a moderator now ? Congratulations for this.

 

[VoodooAce]

I think the smarter hunters are fully capable of changing their tactics should the need arise, but how often do they ever actually need to change tactics? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. By the same token, if it IS broke, then fix it. To have survived the evolutionary process, I'm sure they've had to change in order to survive. The ability to adapt and change is what evolution is all about.

 

[HawkeyeGS]

I would guess that some animals become more tactical. They didn't 'need' to advance as quick as we did because they didn't start out at the bottom of the food chain. They would adapt over generations to an increase/decrease in their own population/predator population/prey population.

 

[Red Stranger]

We were at the bottom of the food chain? Assuming we came from monkeys, how many animals hunt monkeys?

Do animals that are at the bottom of the food chain develop tactics to get away?

 

[Che Guava]

We were at the bottom of the food chain? Assuming we came from monkeys, how many animals hunt monkeys?

From what I know, most wild primates are hunted by big cats. I would imagine that our ancestors would have had problems with big cats, packs of wolves, hungry bears, but mostly other people.

Do animals that are at the bottom of the food chain develop tactics to get away?

Too many to mention! Rabbits change direction quickly when they run because thier small size allows them to be more manuverable than a larger fox, for eg.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I've noticed that almost all animals (carnivores anyway) have developed some form of stalking and attacking their prey. Wolves, lions, hyenas, fish (the hybrid striped bass in particular), etc.

 

[Che Guava]

I've noticed that almost all animals (carnivores anyway) have developed some form of stalking and attacking their prey. Wolves, lions, hyenas, fish (the hybrid striped bass in particular), etc.

Do tell....!

 

[Danghis Khan]

One example I got to see was a California sea lion that had figured out that if he went swimming with a humpback whale and stuck right beside him as the whale went through a school of fish, the sea lion was guranteed to get one or two that the whale missed - I thought that was pretty smart - let the whale do all the work of gathering up the fish.

 

[El_Machinae]

If you look just at the ability to "learn" as opposed to military tactics, octopi have shown an amazing ability to open jars after observing how to do it.

I'm posting from memory here ... but I think that octopuses actually forget how to open jars quite quickly, relative to other animals that learn tricks. They just 're-figure' out how to open them easily.

I'm trying to remember the example ... I think (maybe) when a jar is lowered into the tank, the octopus will attack the jar (with the mollusk inside) each time, using a specific attack strategy. After that occurs, THEN they figure out how to open the jar.

Crap - I can't remember. Did they forget how to open the jar? Or did they always attack first (unable to override instincts)? Urg. Well ... something like that.