StrongHandsMcGee
Member
I remember seeing a video of a mantis solving a rubik's cube a while back, I'm not sure if it was fake or real, but I was wondering if anyone had a link?
Thanks,
Jason
Thanks,
Jason
Vid of Mantis solving Rubik's Cube??
- Thread starter StrongHandsMcGee
- Start date
DensityMan
Active member
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I couldn't even do it. I had to physically take it apart and and change it between takes.
Roy
Roy
StrongHandsMcGee
Member
*Snickering hysterically* That's great stuff...
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AHA!!!
You finally give us a 'Yes or No' answer...
Some people on here were still wondering, I suppose, since you (Dr. Roy) usually answered with 'Well, what do you think?' sort of answers.
On the subject of mantis intelligence...
Dr Roy, these little buggers seem way more intelligent than any other Invert that I have ever heard of/seen/raised (I used to keep praying mantids, as well as scorpions and various spiders...Oh, for a childhood in Arizona). How do you7 think they rate against 'higher' life forms, like fish, for example.
My mantis all seem to have more sense than any of my fish do.
-Ron
psychodave
New member
LOL!!! Thats the best video, ever!! Dr. Roy, you made that? Awesome job man, my girl and I are in stitches!!!
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
The clip was used as promotional teaser for a BBC series called "Wildlife on 1" hosted by David Attenborough. We filmed a half hour program on my research on stomatopods called "Fastest Claw in the West". One sequence looked at the ability of stomatopods to learn to open plastic cubes to obtain shrimp. The cubes were hollow and a glass plate covered the hole. To get the shrimp, the animal had to break the glass - much the same behavior needed to open a snail. The stomatopods were presented two cubes of different colors or with different patterns. Only one cube contained food and they had to learn which one. They learn this fairly quickly.
One day while shooting, we went to lunch and walked past a shop that had a Rubik's cube keychain in the window. It was the same size as the cubes we were using with the stomatopods. I bought it and in between filming, we gave it to one of the O. scyllarus. It would retrieve it like it would a feeding cube, turn it around and strike. We got the idea of shooting a sequence with the animal "solving" the cube. We kept presenting the cube in various states of solution to the animal and eventually a solved cube. Just as they would a snail shell, when the animal determines that there is no more food to be had, they through out the remains. It was then easy to cut together a sequence of the cube being "solved" along with some head scratching (eye cleansing), etc. When Attenborough saw it, he decided to use it as a promo piece.
Roy
One day while shooting, we went to lunch and walked past a shop that had a Rubik's cube keychain in the window. It was the same size as the cubes we were using with the stomatopods. I bought it and in between filming, we gave it to one of the O. scyllarus. It would retrieve it like it would a feeding cube, turn it around and strike. We got the idea of shooting a sequence with the animal "solving" the cube. We kept presenting the cube in various states of solution to the animal and eventually a solved cube. Just as they would a snail shell, when the animal determines that there is no more food to be had, they through out the remains. It was then easy to cut together a sequence of the cube being "solved" along with some head scratching (eye cleansing), etc. When Attenborough saw it, he decided to use it as a promo piece.
Roy
psychodave
New member
Wow, thats awesome! Is there any way to check the program out? Clips or anything on the internet? Id love to see it!!
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
This is very old material aired in 1986. It was marketed for a while by BBC packaged with "Aliens from Inner Space", but I haven't seen it for sale for some time. National Geographic bought the film and re-cut it. It occasionally still aires.
Roy
Roy
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
If we could agree on what we mean by intelligence, it would be a lot easier. "Learning" will depend on what an animal can sense, what it can physically do, and how a stimulus can be linked to a response. This makes it extremely difficult to compare species. Of the crustaceans and cephalopods I've worked with, some stomatopods seem capable of modifying their behavior in response to previous experience to a greater degree than most other invertebrates.
cat_named_noodl
New member
that's the coolest thing i've ever seen, even if it was staged.
mantises rock!
mantises rock!
Dr. Roy
Isn't it true most predators have a higher degree of "intelligence" due to increased cephalization. Look at the hominids, all with relatively high "intelligence" from all of the years of hunting prey that are faster than us. Mantids are no different they have to adapt to their prey so they have limited problem solving skills. I still have seen an octopus do things that just blow my mind and mantids too. Their "intelligence" comes from being the predator and not the prey. Or am I wrong?
Isn't it true most predators have a higher degree of "intelligence" due to increased cephalization. Look at the hominids, all with relatively high "intelligence" from all of the years of hunting prey that are faster than us. Mantids are no different they have to adapt to their prey so they have limited problem solving skills. I still have seen an octopus do things that just blow my mind and mantids too. Their "intelligence" comes from being the predator and not the prey. Or am I wrong?
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I think I would have to agree in general that the fox is usually more intelligent than the hare. However, there are many kinds of predator and many defensive tactics that can be used to avoid being dinner.
It would be nice to be able to generalize here about stomatpods, but I don't think we can. As I have said many times, one stomatopod is not all stomatopods. The problem is that there are many different tactics that predators can adopt - some requiring behavioral plasticity, others speed and a quick response. Sit and wait predators such as many burrowing lysiosquilloids simply need to respond quickly when the right stimulus presents itself. There is little need for "intelligence" - just strike quickly at the correct target. Some smashers learn to be more efficient opening shells, but I don't consider this a sign of great learning capability. There are few stomatopods that show much in the way of great learning ability when it comes to pursuit tactics or learning where and when to hunt.
On the other hand, many smashers do show a fair degree of sophistication when it comes to competing with other animals for cavities. It is here that behavioral plasticity and enhanced sensory capabilities seem to come to the fore. I have always felt that what drives behavioral sophistication in at least some stomatopods (smashers) is the danger of the weapons they possess.
It may not take a lot of "intelligence" to smash something with a sledge hammer, but it may take a good deal of intelligence to avoid having ones head smashed in fighting with an opponent who has a hammer as big as yours.
But even if large smashers are more plastic due to the need to deal with potentially lethal opponents, there always seems to be an exception. The spearer, Pseudosquilla ciliata, strikes me as one of the more "intelligent" of all stomatopods. They stalk prey, use cover during an attack, and hunt is areas that have proved fruitful in the past. They do not have a potent offensive weapons, just three spines on a delicate dactyl. Here I would have to say that selection for a predatory life still has resulted in a very plastic beast.
Roy
It would be nice to be able to generalize here about stomatpods, but I don't think we can. As I have said many times, one stomatopod is not all stomatopods. The problem is that there are many different tactics that predators can adopt - some requiring behavioral plasticity, others speed and a quick response. Sit and wait predators such as many burrowing lysiosquilloids simply need to respond quickly when the right stimulus presents itself. There is little need for "intelligence" - just strike quickly at the correct target. Some smashers learn to be more efficient opening shells, but I don't consider this a sign of great learning capability. There are few stomatopods that show much in the way of great learning ability when it comes to pursuit tactics or learning where and when to hunt.
On the other hand, many smashers do show a fair degree of sophistication when it comes to competing with other animals for cavities. It is here that behavioral plasticity and enhanced sensory capabilities seem to come to the fore. I have always felt that what drives behavioral sophistication in at least some stomatopods (smashers) is the danger of the weapons they possess.
It may not take a lot of "intelligence" to smash something with a sledge hammer, but it may take a good deal of intelligence to avoid having ones head smashed in fighting with an opponent who has a hammer as big as yours.
But even if large smashers are more plastic due to the need to deal with potentially lethal opponents, there always seems to be an exception. The spearer, Pseudosquilla ciliata, strikes me as one of the more "intelligent" of all stomatopods. They stalk prey, use cover during an attack, and hunt is areas that have proved fruitful in the past. They do not have a potent offensive weapons, just three spines on a delicate dactyl. Here I would have to say that selection for a predatory life still has resulted in a very plastic beast.
Roy
Me No Nemo
Premium Member
I think at least some are very intelligent. I have a green mantis shrimp named Waldo. If someone else raps on the tank and calls his name, he doesn't come out. But he's learned that when I do he gets food. So, if I rap and call his name he pops his head out waiting to be fed. He allows me to hand feed him and gently takes the food I offer. Not a really big deal, but very interesting that he has responded to the Pavlovian techniques of food reward.
