Ducklings Have Surprising Abstract Capability, Study Reveals

The researchers from Oxford University discovered that newborn ducklings are capable of understanding abstract concepts such as the "same" and "different." This is typically difficult to comprehend by most animals.

The study was printed in the journal Science. It was led by Alex Kacelnik and Antone Martinho III, zoologists from Oxford University, according to Miami Herald.

The researchers examined the ducklings on the day they were born. They observed the duckling's ability to imprint, which is identifying important figures such as their mothers. When a duckling imprints, it sticks with that mother steadfastly. The imprinting could also be applied in objects.

In the study, the ducklings were shown a "mother", who was composed of two blocks, shaped as a combination of two cubes, spheres or prisms. They were shown two green spheres to imprint on. Then the team took the blocks away. Afterwards, the researchers presented the ducklings two new pairs of blocks, which were slowly circling a track, like two very short toy trains. These might be a pair of matched blue spheres and a mismatched pair of orange and purple spheres.

The results showed that most of the ducklings followed the pair of shapes that had the same associations as the pair with which they were primed. They glanced and dashed toward the matched pair (a pair of spheres that matched in color) as their abstract mother. This goes with the same principle if the original pair of blocks was composed of various shapes, the ducklings scurried toward new blocks with various shapes rather than pairs of matching shapes.

The study indicates that ducklings are able to identify not only shape and color but also sameness and difference. The concepts require understanding on the way things relate to one another. Martinho said that they were surprised not only that they did it, but also that they did it with such accuracy, as noted by The Scientist.