I'm not sure this question even makes sense

[james_davis_nicoll]

But why are humans so drab compared to, say, birds? Is it just that mammals in general have lousy color vision (although ours is better than average) and that we're descended from animals that wouldn't have been able to make use of a wide variety of fur colors or is it that there's something about fur and hair that inherently limits its palette?

I will admit this ranks lower on my "inherent human features that require fixing" than the vitamin C thing, particularly given the existance of non-toxic dyes.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Mammals are a lot smarter than birds, so we don't need nearly such an in-your-face indication that a prospective mate is of the right species. Also we're more scent-oriented, and use that a lot for mate selection. Birds do the flying thing, which means they're not very well camouflaged anyway, and need to be on the lookout for predators, and need to find food and shelter from further away, so they're more visual. And the avian predators even more so.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Mammals are a lot smarter than birds,

This will end badly.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

My clue bat arm is sore. anyway, Doug is the birder.

Alas

[(Anonymous)]

I don't have the time just now. But I note we have been continually revising our estimate of bird intelligence upwards for a while now. Sparrows and whatnot included... putting my own biases aside, the best guess is that yes, sparrows probably are at least as bright as mice.


Doug M.

[redbird]

Well, many mammals are smarter than many birds. I wouldn't ask a mouse to outsmart a parrot or crow.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. But how would a mouse do against a sparrow?

Maybe being more smell-oriented is actually more important than "intelligence" for this. The speed and range of flying made scent less useful and sight more, so birds developed better sight and less good smell? And their mating strategies use their strengths, as do mammals'?

[trogon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you'll get a lot farther here than with intelligence; most birds have no sense of smell, after all.

I still think most of it's due to the physical structure of fur vs. feathers, though.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Especially considering that a crow would probably fashion a crude shiv out of a nearby coathanger. Which would make it an especially unfair contest unless the crow was sent up against a group of mice who were trained to use a form of mouse sized halberd.

completely irrelevant but heavily armed rodents

[zxhrue.livejournal.com]

http://www.chukw.com/Critters/Redwall.html

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Speaking of parrots, has anyone not seen this?