Richard Prum: uncertainty

Transcript context

…A lot of birds go crazy when they see other dead birds, right? They make a lot of noise. Doesn’t mean they understand death, but they know something’s gone wrong. No, but I do think there are examples of birds. Carl Safina has cataloged these. I don’t know that literature, but there are certainly examples of birds that appear to be mourning or understanding that their compatriots are physically present, but no longer living, [laughs] whatever that is. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do. They know each other as individuals deeply and appreciate it. You were mentioning albatross earlier. One of the things about albatross, the big ones — they nest every other year, so in every albatross colony, there’s an even-year cohort and an odd-year cohort that returns, and they take off the other year, then come back to reproduce. They are monogamous over decades if they live long enough. They’ll spend that year off — 9 ½ months or 12, 15 months, whatever it is — and they’ll even fly around the entire Southern continents, around Antarctica a couple of times, then return to the Farrallon or Malvinas islands, and then meet that same mate and then mate again. They recognize each other. I certainly think they would understand that that bird is not returning. Birds have culture, right?…

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