Sarah Wilson, featured in Why We Love Cats and Dogs

Update February 19, 2009: Professional dog trainer and behaviorist Sarah Wilson answers Five Good Questions on PBS Engage.

Every dog owner has a unique bond with his or her pet. But what does that relationship say about us? What does the way we treat our pets say about ourselves? Sarah Wilson asked herself this question, and came up with her list of the nine different behavior patterns seen in dog owners. What personality type are you?

THE FEELERS

The Angel: Angels, as their name suggests, are all about saving dogs with love. They almost always adopt or rescue their pets, and if circumstances allow, they will rescue multiple dogs, and often own other types of pets as well, including cats, rabbits, gerbils, and birds. Many Angels may have dogs with special needs—such as a missing leg or eye, or animals that have been abused by previous owners. Angels have trouble disciplining their dogs, and hate to use any kind of force. As long as their pet is happy, Angels will tolerate lots of “naughty antics” and even disregard poor housebreaking.

The Soul Mate: Loving, attentive, and empathetic towards their dogs, true Soul Mates value the deep-feeling connections they develop with their pets. Soul Mates are always thinking of their pets’ safety and wellbeing, and a Soul Mate’s dog is always very well taken care of. Soul Mates are also known to take their dogs on many trips, adventures, and outings. As a result, their dogs are usually very well socialized.

The Free Spirit: Free Spirits have no interest in controlling their dogs. They want a stress-free, laid-back relationship, where their dogs have unlimited freedom to do whatever they want. Free Spirits often have high-powered, executive jobs that require constant decision-making. When they get home to their dog at night, they want nothing more than to just let their dog call the shots.

THE THINKERS

The Idealist: Idealists set very high, but realistic standards for themselves and their dogs. They believe there is one way to do things, and that is the right way. They like an orderly home, and make very good, loyal friends. Rules are very important, and they are disciplined, dependable, and strong. They expect the same of their dogs, but are often elated when their dogs bring a little bit of chaos to their homes — convincing them to loosen up a bit.

The Expert: Experts believe that the best way to keep their dogs safe and happy is to learn everything they can about owning a dog, training, and their specific breed or mix. An Expert will do extensive research before purchasing or adopting a dog. They are often extremely intelligent, with a sharp wit and an excellent sense of humor. They thrive on learning, and make sure their dogs do too. Experts will have their dogs enrolled in obedience, agility, and training classes.

The Observer: Observers appreciate their dogs as dogs and are fascinated by their behavior. Thinking like scientists, observers gain pleasure from watching their dogs and trying to figure them out. Everything their dogs do is a delightful puzzle, and Observers can easily lose track of time while watching animals be animals. Jane Goodall is a classic Observer, as are many loyal NATURE viewers!

THE DO-ERS

The Dynamo: Dynamos are busy people who get a lot done in a day. They are hard workers who stick to a tight and hectic schedule. Most of all, Dynamos are reliable. Their dogs are very well taken care of, and benefit from their daily routine. After going, going, going nonstop all day, a Dynamo can feel drained or empty. Some love from a dog recharges them, soothes them, and helps them keep their priorities straight.

The Master: Masters see themselves as more than dog “owners” — they are coaches, teachers, and leaders. They are extremely persistent and patient, and form their strongest bonds with their dogs by working together. Training takes on an important role, and many Masters are involved in agility and obedience competitions. Masters communicate constantly with their well-trained dogs, and the connections they form are often impressive. Masters need to feel in control, and their posture, gestures, and demeanor all signal leadership.

The Buddy: Buddies are high-energy, full force funsters. They are all for dog sports and outdoor adventures, anytime. They form connections with their dogs by sharing experiences with them. As confident, strong leaders, Buddies have no problem training their dogs. In fact, their dogs seem to naturally fall into step with their owners — the perfect Buddy System. This can be a wonderful and exciting life for both the owner and the dog.

(Click here for a printer-friendly version of this lesson.)

GRADE LEVEL: 9-12

TIME ALLOTMENT: Three 45-minute class periods

OVERVIEW: The traditional view of animal behavior is that it is driven by inherited, innate instincts, but recent scientific research is revealing a larger role for complex cognitive processes among many species. The lesson will explore some of the more commonly accepted indicators of animal intelligence as demonstrated by the most brainy of all birds-the raven.

Students will first explore a series of science Web sites to compile a list of certain animal behaviors and abilities that indicate higher intelligence. They will then find and analyze examples of these behaviors and abilities as demonstrated by ravens in selected clips from the NATURE episode “Ravens.” Based on what they learn, students will then work in groups to create a theoretical intelligence-challenging “obstacle course” for ravens.

This lesson could be used following (or in conjunction with) the lesson “Symbiotic Strategies.”

SUBJECT MATTER: Living Environment/Biology

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

• Compare “classical” and “modern” views of bird brain anatomy and function, and compare bird brains to human brains;
• Describe various raven behaviors and abilities that indicate intelligence;
• Explain why many of these behaviors indicate cognitive intelligence rather than simple inherited instinct;
• Assemble a realistic sequence of intelligence-testing challenges for ravens.

STANDARDS AND CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT:

National Science Education Standards

CONTENT STANDARD C: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of:

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF ORGANISMS

• Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationships and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.
• Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between organisms.

THE BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS

• Organisms have behavioral responses to internal changes and to external stimuli. Responses to external stimuli can result from interactions with the organism’s own species and others, as well as environmental changes; these responses either can be innate or learned. The broad patterns of behavior exhibited by animals have evolved to ensure reproductive success. Animals often live in unpredictable environments, and so their behavior must be flexible enough to deal with uncertainty and change. Plants also respond to stimuli.
• Like other aspects of an organism’s biology, behaviors have evolved through natural selection. Behaviors often have an adaptive logic when viewed in terms of evolutionary principles.
• Behavioral biology has implications for humans, as it provides links to psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

CONTENT STANDARD G: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of

NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

• Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria. First and foremost, they must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature, and must make accurate predictions, when appropriate, about systems being studied. They should also be logical, respect the rules of evidence, be open to criticism, report methods and procedures, and make knowledge public. Explanations on how the natural world changes based on myths, personal beliefs, religious values, mystical inspiration, superstition, or authority may be personally useful and socially relevant, but they are not scientific.
• Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available. The core ideas of science such as the conservation of energy or the laws of motion have been subjected to a wide variety of confirmations and are therefore unlikely to change in the areas in which they have been tested. In areas where data or understanding are incomplete, such as the details of human evolution or questions surrounding global warming, new data may well lead to changes in current ideas or resolve current conflicts. In situations where information is still fragmentary, it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete, but this is also where the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.

NEW YORK STATE CORE CURRICULUM ALIGNMENTS

Living Environment Core Curriculum

Standard 1: Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

Key Idea 1: The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing and creative process.

Performance Indicator 1.1: Hone ideas through reasoning, library research, and discussion with others, including experts.

1.2a Inquiry involves asking questions and locating, interpreting, and processing information from a variety of sources.

Standard 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Key Idea 1: Living things are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things.

Performance Indicator 1.1 Explain how diversity of populations within ecosystems relates to the stability of ecosystems.

1.1a Populations can be categorized by the function they serve. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers carrying out either autotropic or heterotropic nutrition.

1.1b An ecosystem is shaped by the nonliving environment as well as its interacting species. The world contains a wide diversity of physical conditions, which creates a variety of environments.

1.1c In all environments, organisms compete for vital resources. The linked and changing interactions of populations and the environment compose the total ecosystem.

Key Idea 6: Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

Performance Indicator 6.1 Explain factors that limit growth of individuals and populations.

6.1g Relationships between organisms may be negative, neutral, or positive. Some organisms may interact with one another in several ways. They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship; or one organism may cause disease in, scavenge, or decompose another.

MEDIA COMPONENTS:

Video

NATURE: Ravens, selected segments:

Clip 1: “Raven Adaptability”

Ravens are the most intelligent birds in the crow family.

Clip 2: “Feeding Time”

Ravens’ smarts can be observed in many situations.

Clip 3: “The Roost”

Why do ravens gather together?

Clip 4: “Testing Intelligence”

Scientific experiments test how ravens think.

Access the streaming and downloadable video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.

Web Sites

Bird Brain
A site from PBS’s NOVA exploring the most current understanding of bird brain physiology, revealing a less instinctive and more cognitive brain structure than has traditionally been thought.

Measuring Intelligence
A site from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park addressing some of the basic difficulties in determining bird intelligence.

The Animal Mind
A NATURE site from PBS describing the intelligent behavior of four different species.

Symbiosis
A site from North Carolina State University featuring descriptions of the different types of symbiotic relationships among animals.

Nutcrackers
A PBS site exploring intelligent behavior in various bird species.

MATERIALS

For each student:

• “Raven Reason” Student Organizer. (PDF) (RTF)
• Computer with Internet access

For the class:

• “Raven Reason” Student Organizer Answer Key (PDF) (RTF)
• Computer with Internet access and projection system for showing video clips
• Blackboard or whiteboard

PREP FOR TEACHERS:

Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Preview all of the video clips and Web sites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us or diigo (or an online bookmarking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location.

Gather the necessary materials listed above in advance of teaching the lesson. Download and print the “Raven Reason” student organizer and make copies for each student in your classroom.

Note that the computer requirements in the “Materials” section reflect an ideal arrangement. You may find it necessary to divide the class into a number of groups equal to the computers available, adjusting the lesson instructions accordingly.

Next: Proceed to Activities

Background:
The traditional view of birds was that they simply acted by a set of inherited instincts, but new scientific research is revealing a larger role for complex cognitive processes in their behavior, including communication, counting, memory, and basic problem solving. These excerpts from the NATURE episode “Ravens” demonstrate several of these commonly accepted indicators of animal intelligence as demonstrated by the most brainy of all birds-the raven.

Suggested Focus Questions:

Clip 1: Raven Adaptability

1. What makes ravens so adaptable?
2. Ravens eat meat but they don’t kill it themselves. What kind of animal does this make them?
3. How might ravens’ relationship with coyotes indicate their intelligence?

Clip 2: Feeding Time

1. What skill does the raven demonstrate at the dumpster?
2. When and why might a raven puff out its feathers?
3. How might ravens’ caching behavior indicate intelligence?

Clip 3: The Roost

1. What’s one theory about why young ravens roost together?
2. How might one raven be able to tell if another knows where food is?
3. Why would a young raven, having found food, call over other ravens to help eat it?

Clip 4: Testing Intelligence

1. Why is it so difficult to measure intelligence in animals?
2. Why is it important that the ravens have never been exposed to the experiment before?

Downloadable QuickTime versions of the video segments:
(Note: To download a video, right=click on the video title and click “Save Link As…’ or “Save Target As…”. On a Mac, press the CTRL key and simultaneously click the mouse, then save the link.)

Clip 1: “Raven Adaptability“

Clip 2: “Feeding Time“

Clip 3: “The Roost“

Clip 4: “Testing Intelligence“

Animals Behaving Badly filmmaker John Rubin is president and producer/executive producer of Rubin Tarrant Productions (RTP). He is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who turned to documentaries after completing his Ph.D. in cognitive science at M.I.T. in 1986. Rubin was a member of National Geographic Television’s Natural History Unit from 1993-1997. NATURE Online spoke with Rubin for an insider’s view of Animals Behaving Badly.

What gave you the idea to film animals being naughty?

I heard a story about monkeys in Thailand that would wait outside a 7-11 for kids to come out holding Slurpees. And the monkeys would actually mug the kids by coming up to them and making threatening faces, or worse. And so most of the kids would immediately drop their Slurpees and run, and then the monkeys would take the food around to the back of the store and enjoy it at their leisure. So this story, which by the way never ended up in the film, got me thinking about how rare it was for animals to actually win out in a conflict with people. And that led me to the story of Animals Behaving Badly, which is a look at what species need in order to survive near humans.

Do they have to become more like humans in order to survive?

In a way, that’s true: the species that seem to win out are generalists. They don’t have picky tastes about food, they aren’t picky about where they sleep or den, they tend to be fast breeders, and they tend to be very smart. Many of those are qualities we share with them.

So we’re teaching them to be more like us?

Well, I don’t know about teaching them to be more like us, but those that prevail — and that’s certainly a minority of species — are those that share a number of qualities with us.

Were there other anecdotes besides the monkeys in Thailand that you heard about but were unable to include?

We had a long list that we were pursuing. I was interested in a story about pickpocket monkeys in Bali, Indonesia. Those are monkeys that have been trained by their owners to pick the pockets of tourists, and then I decided that those weren’t really central to the story because those were actually corrupted by human instruction rather than following their own instincts.

[Another story was about] condors near Santa Barbara. A guy named Les Reed heard a crashing noise upstairs in his house; he was working in the basement. When he went upstairs, he found more than one condor in his bedroom. They had torn open the screen door, and the condors were shredding his bedroom, tearing up his mattress and laundry! And when he arrived, they just kind of stared at him. They’re very large birds. But we didn’t know how to get that on screen, or how to depict it, so we let that one slide. But that was very odd to me, that condors would be so bold and curiously aggressive. It could be that these were condors that had been hand-raised and reintroduced, and had some habituation to people. That was very odd.

Also, a filmmaker friend of mine had managed to capture black bears who were ripping laundry off a laundry line and then rolling around in the fresh laundry. They couldn’t figure out why they were doing this, or what to make of it, though!

How did you discover the various different situations depicted in the program? How did you find the marauding stone martens, the bears, or the skunk in San Francisco?

The skunk in San Francisco was something I heard about through my associate producer, Sarah Werner. The story actually takes place in her parents’ house. As we were discussing and researching the film, she mentioned that her parents’ home was regularly invaded by skunks that entered through the cat door. So it was actually her father who set up the video camera very patiently night after night and helped us capture the skunk invasion and the raccoon invasion.

Was the skunk that came in during the dinner party a stunt skunk, or was it a real invader?

The skunk was a re-enactment of the story that Christian Werner tells that we weren’t able to capture, but the raccoon entering the cat door in the garage was captured in his house by the patient setting up of a video camera night after night. I asked him to set up the camera in the garage aimed at the door and just set it rolling, and it had an hour of tape in it. So by just setting it rolling for an hour every night as he went to bed, we quickly caught the raccoon entering. That was good.

You must be very brave to film a skunk. How do you deal with an animal that, if he gets frightened, might spray the entire crew?

Yes, and actually, the skunk we used in that re-enactment was not a de-scented skunk, I believe, so why we weren’t sprayed, I don’t know! We actually filmed that re-enactment in Anne Tarrant’s house, and when her husband came home, he did detect a funky aroma, and I think we are no longer invited back for animal re-enactments.

Back to the question of how we got a lot of the footage: it came from very extensive research, talking to lots and lots of people we knew. Just as one example of how we found footage, the ravens in Yellowstone Park: I found out about that by asking a filmmaker friend named Bob Landis if anything came to mind on the subject of animals behaving badly — that is, exasperating behaviors that are triggered by human proximity. And he told me about this sequence that he had filmed in Yellowstone. We had probably hundreds of conversations like that, asking people who spent time with animals for stories they’d heard of or experienced.

Which was your favorite sequence?

My favorite was the Canada goose story.

Yes, the “Tao of poo.”

Yes, I can’t believe that stayed in! That was fun. It’s also a very current and big story, because Canada geese are invading any possible green space in huge numbers. I guess what I liked about it was the superintendent of the golf course, who was this poor beleaguered man who was trying to keep his golf course running. And he tries one thing after another to get rid of the geese. He tries fireworks and firecrackers; he got a toy boat from Radio Shack and chased the geese around in a water hazard, and the geese hardly reacted! And then the ultimate solution that we pointed him toward was the use of border collies.

So you actually suggested that?

Yes. He had heard about it independently and knew of this woman and her dogs, but they hadn’t gotten together, so we came along at the right time. But it had been on his mind, and we introduced them for this trial run. But lots of golf courses are adopting these dogs, and what’s interesting too is that most border collies are just not fit for work on a golf course because they don’t like to be in the water, and they have to jump in the water to chase the geese, as it’s the first place they go for safety. So I like the humor of the story, and I like the gentle resolution of it, and the fact that the problem is resolved by the exercise of the dog’s natural inclination.

The sequence with the aerialist squirrel: is that just a run-of-the-mill ordinary squirrel, or was it a trained stunt squirrel?

To call it a trained squirrel would be praising the squirrel beyond all reason and ability. We worked with an animal handler who, during the warm months in the northeast, receives baby squirrels that have been orphaned somehow. We worked with her to get a squirrel that was used to having people around and had been introduced to our steeplechase course. So I wouldn’t call it a trained squirrel; I’d call it a habituated squirrel that knew the course and had been introduced to it.

They’re very difficult animals to work with. They’re smart; it’s just that they’re as jittery as they look. I think there are a lot of small thoughts flickering through their heads rapidly. And of course, in filming, what the squirrel was most interested in doing, rather than running the course to get the reward, it was much more interested in jumping off the platform onto the camera and the cinematographer’s head!

What do you consider to be the general message of the film?

It’s actually a pretty gentle film when you get down to it. I think of it more as a film about people behaving badly, and I mean that in the sense that human beings are putting pressure on wild animals by expanding our territory, expanding our domination of the landscape. I hope people take the title in the ironic way I meant it: it’s really about people putting pressure on environments and putting challenges to animals that only very few of them can rise to. I’d like viewers to come away with a greater sense of the impact we have on the natural world, and the fact that very few animals do well when we take over a new neighborhood or a new part of the world. It’s about animals reacting to humans and using their natural gifts to do the best they can with the situation we present them.

What is the next project you’re working on?

I have a film in mind that I would love to be the successor of this: I would like to look at the story of invasive species. In the new film, I’d like to take the same entertaining or sometimes comedic approach to what again is a very serious topic. Invasive species, that is, species that we have brought with us intentionally as we move around the world, or species that have hitchhiked with us without our knowledge from one part of the world to another, have had tremendous impacts on environments.

The story I know best is in Jamaica. That’s a story where the first invader was a rat, and that caused terrible damage, so they thought they would fight the rat with a mongoose, not realizing that rats are nocturnal and the mongoose is diurnal. And so these two animals never met each other, and instead double-teamed the birds that they were damaging!

I think you can serve a serious topic without being really dutiful or gloomy in your tone: my working title for this next film is I’M WITH STUPID.

NATURE investigates the sometimes exasperating efforts of people and wild animals to adapt to each other when their worlds collide in Animals Behaving Badly.

The escalating battle for space on this planet between people and wild animals has grown increasingly one-sided, as humanity asserts its domination. But a few intrepid species are successfully challenging, harassing, and even exploiting us on our own turf.

How people are dealing with these incursions — and what we can learn from them to the benefit of both wildlife and humans — is the amusing and enlightening focus of Animals Behaving Badly. The filmmakers traveled to various parts of the United States and Canada, and as far away as New Zealand and Australia, to show us examples of animals behaving “badly,” and of the varying human reactions.

To order a copy of Animals Behaving Badly, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Animals Behaving Badly was originally posted May 2003.

Consequently, many aspects of the mandrill’s social organization, mating systems, and other behaviors are still not fully understood. This, says Dr. Dixson, makes the species “the last great mystery among the family of Old World monkeys and apes.” The studies of Dr. Dixson and others are, however, beginning to unravel some of the mysteries.

One of the most fascinating questions is why male mandrills sport such bright colors. As seen in Mask of the Mandrill, Fangs, a dominant male who mates with many females, is much more colorful and larger than other, less successful males. He also has much higher levels of the male hormone testosterone.

“We think we’ve got an alternative reproductive strategy going on here,” explains Dr. Dixson. “The males who are less successful, less dominant, may be going through a period of their lives when they suppress development of the secondary sexual characteristics such as color and size. If they get a chance to become higher in rank, then those features emerge.”

Why do some males hang back? They are essentially conserving their resources. If they are not likely to be able to mate, it doesn’t make sense physiologically to “invest” in reproductive characteristics. A more aggressive male, for example, is more likely to invite aggressive behavior from others, risking injury. There is also some evidence in other species that high testosterone levels can have a detrimental effect on the immune system. Just how the mandrill manages to suppress its development is not yet known.

Another mystery is the purpose of a scent gland found on the chests of mandrills. Males in particular like to embrace a tree and rub up and down against it to deposit scent, says Dr. Dixson. “They all do it, but I haven’t got the faintest idea why. It may be that, given their large home ranges, the males are somehow communicating through these marks.” He suspects they might also use their bright colors for visual forms of communication.

“It is very difficult to see them in the forest, but when you do, the first thing you see is a flash of color through the undergrowth, a flash of nose or rump.” The best way for humans to travel through the dense rainforest, Dr. Dixson says, is to use the paths “bashed down by the forest elephants, but, of course, then you might meet an elephant!”

Frustrated with trying to follow the animals through the rainforest, Dr. Dixson did his research by building an observation tower near where the mandrills regularly gathered to feed. He watched their social interactions for many hours, and also managed to secure blood samples to perform DNA studies and determine the paternity of the offspring. The most colorful, most aggressive males, as he expected, had fathered most of the offspring.

Although they are known for their shyness, mandrills are often called “the devil of the Fang,” a reference to the local Fang people, says Dr. Dixson. “If you see a mandrill in the wild, it’s likely to have a grinning facial expression, with the corners of its mouth open wide and the middle closed, and to be shaking its head from side to side, and showing its enormous canines.” It’s an entirely friendly expression, swears Dr. Dixson, but to our eyes, it seems devilish indeed.

Online content for Mask of the Mandrill was originally posted November 1996.