Previously this ability was only observed in monkeys, crows and parrots.
Scientists said that the ducklings demonstrate the ability to think abstractly, which was previously observed only in highly developed animals such as apes, crows and parrots.
The research results were published in the journal Science. Ducklings in childhood study, repeating the actions of the mother. This process scientists call imprinting (imprinting), one of its characteristics is following the continuously ducklings follow the mother or each other.
In the study, researchers conducted an experiment in which showed newborn ducklings, a pair of moving objects having similar or different shape and color. After forming the reaction sequence, the ducklings were shown two pairs of objects, one of them consisted of the same objects, and the second from different. For example, the duck that followed the two pyramids, you now had to choose: to follow the two balls or ball and pyramid.
Scientists assume that if the birds notice the differences between objects, which they followed, with new pairs of objects, a key role had to played by the ratio of their characteristics. That is, in the example, the duck had to choose two balls. In the experiment, so did 75% of the ducklings. According to the researchers, this is the first case when animals were able to discover abstract relations between objects from birth. Usually this ability is developed during long training.
