This is an interestig titbit:
A study of the gregarious house sparrow suggests that
individuals in larger groups are swifter at solving new problems than those in
smaller groups—findings that add a behavioral dimension to the ecological costs
and benefits of group living. Using wild-caught birds that were then
acclimatized to experimental aviaries, Liker and Bókony investigated whether
group size affected the success rate at which birds figured out how to obtain
seeds from a familiar feeder when access was blocked with a transparent lid. The
larger groups, which contained six birds, were able to dislodge the lids roughly
10 times as quickly as smaller groups of two birds—a pattern that was consistent
across all individuals in the groups. Also, birds from urban environments were
faster than birds from rural backgrounds. Increased success at problem-solving
in larger groups may reflect a wider diversity of experience and skill among the
individuals in the group and may constitute an adaptive advantage in complex
habitats.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106,
10.1073/pnas.0900042106 (2009).
So if ducks are made
of wood and ducks float than New York should have sorted everything out by
now.
