Hope
News like this gives me hope for the future of us all. The sooner mankind stops thinking we're somehow unique and superior to the rest of life on the planet, hopefully we'll be more considerate and less destructive. I hope at least.
Boffins have observed a worrying alliance between trout and eels, which have joined forces to launch a sea-had (jihad, geddit?) against other ocean-dwelling species. Cooperation is as rare in the animal kingdom as it is in the United one, so fish-folk at the University of Cambridge were astonished to see two different …
"This study strengthens the case that a relatively small brain – compared to warm-blooded species – does not stop at least some fish species from possessing cognitive abilities that compare to or even surpass those of apes," Vail added.
Absolute bollocks. There is no cognition going on here.
Mutant brainy fish capable of cooperating together? This is clearly the outcome of the Fukushima nuclear disaster! And mark, this is happening just a couple of years after the event. If they go on improving themselves at this rate, they will soon become cleverer than us and then...
Of course it would be comforting, but foolish to assume that this disaster in the making is confined to trouts: watch out, O people! Here come the cleverest sharks you've ever seen, with naturally developed laser mounts, to rule the seas; massive, armoured mosquitoes able to fly through concrete walls; slugs with brains running at no less than 25 Petaflops. Giant spiders that are able to argue the philosophical implications of your forthcoming demise in ways far beyond your comprehension while preparing to eat you...
Except the "Microsoft file copy dialog team" and "National Rail" cells, who keep pushing back the predicted time.
I was copying some files onto a friends' PC for him the other day. About 5GB. The dialogue popped up saying 20 mins. Fair enough, it's only USB. Then it suddenly changed to "time to copy: 3 days". Erk!
I remember installing a game on win95 and being confused as hell by the windows installer back then as well as the timer.
"Installing 10%, 11%, 10% 9%" wait what?
I left teh install running and went back to it, it was still flicking between 9 and 11%, then jumped to 99%... Confused the ehck out of a young me.
Or something else?
It sounds as though these researchers have gotten a little carried away with their speculation based on their observation.
As far as I am aware cognitive behaviour require a fair bit of processing ability; this sounds more like evolved behaviour patterns.
When the trout has found prey and is unable to reach it, perhaps it has a particular behavioural trait which over time the eels have come to equate with the presence of prey that they can reach. Clearly the trout are not a threat to the eels so they are just using a form of opportunism as a hunting/food sourcing ploy. Obviously if the eel chases the prey out of the crevice before it can eat it, the waiting trout will grab it.
Where was it they had a jaunt to, to indulge in this shaky science?
You are spot on. Rather than "intelligent" behaviour, this sounds like opportunistic hunting, a quite common behaviour under water. I have seen jacks swimming with sharks and stingrays, hoping to catch some morsels (from the sharks) or small fry (stirred up by the rays). Once I observed a jack that had turned yellow (which I didn't know they were able to do) to blend in in a school of grunts.