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[wombat]

I think that even if this story were true, it's something that could evolve without thought.  For instance, when the number one pug was a puppy and played with other dogs, she'd sometimes crouch down like she didn't want to be seen in the tall grass - even when there was no tall grass. So it was obviously more instinctive than thinky. If animals that happened to crouch down a bit (or cover their nose) when stalking prey were more successful, they could leave more descendants that did the same even without being aware of what they were doing.

Not to say that animals don't think, just that I wouldn't hire my dog on the basis of that particular behavior without a more in-depth interview.

[Doc]

This reminds me of one of my favourite neuropsych experiments.
Basically you  put a dot of sweet food stuff, like icing, one a monkey or an ape's (or a person's) forehead without them noticing and stick them in front of a mirror. Monkeys up to gibbons I think and children under the age of about two won't correlate what they see in the mirror with themselves so if they interact with it at all they'll try to take the food off the mirror or reach behind/through the mirror to get at it. Apes (and older humans, obviously) will see their reflection and reach to the spot on their face where the food is.
I can't find the video from the lecture where I heard it originally but this is fairly similar.
The cool thing is that if you follow the phylogenetic tree in primates after a certain point all the 'more evolved' species can do this and the ones up that point can't, which means there was a definite that a past ancestor acquired the ability to be self aware, the same way one acquired opposable thumbs. Point being that a polar bear probably doesn't have the right brain bits to be self aware enough to cover their nose, but a chimp might, which I think is cool.

[Victoria Waterfield]

This reminds me of one of my favourite neuropsych experiments.
Basically you  put a dot of sweet food stuff, like icing, one a monkey or an ape's (or a person's) forehead without them noticing and stick them in front of a mirror. Monkeys up to gibbons I think and children under the age of about two won't correlate what they see in the mirror with themselves so if they interact with it at all they'll try to take the food off the mirror or reach behind/through the mirror to get at it. Apes (and older humans, obviously) will see their reflection and reach to the spot on their face where the food is.
I can't find the video from the lecture where I heard it originally but this is fairly similar.
The cool thing is that if you follow the phylogenetic tree in primates after a certain point all the 'more evolved' species can do this and the ones up that point can't, which means there was a definite that a past ancestor acquired the ability to be self aware, the same way one acquired opposable thumbs. Point being that a polar bear probably doesn't have the right brain bits to be self aware enough to cover their nose, but a chimp might, which I think is cool.

The "got your nose" trick, on the other hand, was first discovered by Homo habilis.

[jaydub]

Did they also invent the "what's that on your chest?" - points - whips finger up your face when you look down - thing?  'cos that might explain why they're extinct now.

[Lister]

Homo Habilis - the first hominid known to have gone extinct due to fake handshakes.

[Choop]

"Up High, Down Low, Too Slow" was introduced by Homo neanderthalensis

[lprkn]

[Nabubrush]

The other pug costumes were cute but that shit is harsh. That poor fuckin' dog.

[lprkn]

Yeah, looks like a costume design major went on an adderall binge.

[wombat]

That dog looks extremely disabled, I suspect she can't walk much on her own anyway so she probably doesn't mind.

[Doc]

But Gone with the Woof scans so much better.

[wombat]

The poor girl does look somewhat better right-side up, really, but I can't find a source that lets me embed the image.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimkiernan/5113128833/in/photostream/

[Nabubrush]

Re: Polar bears

Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but I saw a polar bear at work once. It walked by the back of our box van, about 30 feet away. Sort of an uncomfortable moment. They look much different when they're not in the zoo behind three enormous fences.

[wombat]

OMG. Don't mess with bears.

[jaydub]

Yesterday my dog somehow chased a squirrel into the house.  This wasn't immediately obvious because she's not much of a barker.  She just ran back and forth through the house making her 'worried' noise once the squirrel had hidden in my daughter's dresser out of reach.  My wife eventually twigged to something weird being up, and sent me into the room to see "if any sort of wild animal" was in there. 

I was watching the Niners attempting to lose to Denver, so it was with great annoyance that I went in there expecting to find a spider, or perhaps a cranefly.  Immediately after entering the room I smelled "wild mammal" funk however and with knocking heart scouted around until I saw a grizzled gray and orange rump crammed into a crevice behind the dresser.  I extracted it with gardening gloves and a heavy towel (those suckers can bite).  I carried it back towards the outside swaddled in the towel with only its head poking out. 

My wife almost flipped out when she saw it (I'm pretty sure she thought the commotion was bogus as well), but then decided it looked really cute all peacefully huddled in its towel (it did).  I almost spoiled everything by breaking into Ray Stevens' Mississippi Squirrel Revival song, which alarmed the squirrel all over again and required me regaining control of it.  I cut the nature lesson for the kids short and hurried outside to put it in a tree where it headed for high branches - not too much worse for wear.

Combined with the kill she managed a few years ago, my dog now qualifies for the "mighty hunter" appellation.  I'll see about adding that to her pedigree.