Do animals have random behavior generators?

While animals are not as complex as humans are at thought,they do posses that capability, ever watch a cat hesitating at making a leap?
Think it might be thinking, can I make this jump?
As for escaping danger,they are not any less intelligent than you or I ,they are looking for the safest fastest way out.
Now for a little story we had a cat a few years back,that would use her claws on us and the couch a little to much,so we would take the nail clippers and nip the tips off,didn’t hurt her and we bled less,well as time goes by the nail clippers kept vanishing,the wife and I didn’t think much about it and just blamed each other for not putting them back, a short time later the wife had to move the couch to clean under it, and all five pairs of nail clippers where there in a neat pile,now you tell me animals don’t think.
Now another story was at a friends house and his dog slapped this cotton rope in my lap,it was a pull toy,the dog had two of these toys they looked the same,all I said to the dog was Aw Jake I wanted the other one,and continued to talk with my friend 2 minutes later the dog slapped the other cotton rope in my lap and I know it was the other one because the first one was still at my feet,and you say animals don’t think?

I am not convinced that a cat’s leaping hesitation is due to uncertainty.

I like the story about the clippers. It does make you wonder about the cat’s behavior. It could be that the cat’s clipper placement was random and that the cat previously put the clippers in other places where you were able to find them. Putting them all in one place might just be a neatness fetish or some other behavior quirk.

The dog might have sensed your lack of interest in the one toy and just chose the other as an alternative.

But that dog had lots of toys, why not just bring an all together different toy?
And you would have to have met that cat.

This is an interesting question. You are asking, I think, whether animals have the “consciousness” we believe we have. You don’t hesitate to attribute a decision-making process to another human, right?

I think answering this is problematic because, as far as I know, there is a lot of arguing about the definition of the term “consciousness”. Guilio Tononi, who is one of the leading experts in this field, says that consciousness is the state in which the different parts of our brains communicate with each other. In sleep, our brain is still at work, it doesn’t shut down – but its different areas are not in contact with each other.

I, personally, absolutely allow for decision-making processes in animals. When I call my dog, and she looks at me, hesitates, and chases a squirrel instead, I believe she has made a decision. I believe this to be true for three reasons:

1. Structurally, all mammals’ brains are remarkably similar.

2. If you believe in the theory of evolution, you will need to ask yourself at which point brains morphed from what you believe to be the basic model to what is in your skull. When did this happen, and where did it come from?
If you believe in a God who shaped us from mud, this argument does not apply.

3. How important is our decision-making, and would we be able to survive without it? Do you think an animal could? How would very basic decisions be made, like what to eat, where to hunt, when to hide?

After thinking about all this, I believe I’ve chosen the most simple explanation. Yes, we can attribute everything an animal does to instinct. However, we could do the same with humans. What would an animal need to do to prove it can make a decision? Speech is out – what else will you accept?

Moths appear to randomly respond to bat clicks; they will either fly erratically or drop precipitously to the ground.

Since a definition of consciousness is still being debated, which animals are able to have the experience of consciousness cannot be concluded. However, the necessity of consciousness to make decisions is even more debatable. Most human behaviors are wholly determined by unconscious mechanisms and are presented to higher mental functions after the fact.

All creatures have instinct. Instinctive mechanisms generate approximate actions that experience shapes into effective behaviors. Birds and mammals appear to learn by witnessing the behaviors of mature members of their species. They also observe members of other species foraging or fleeing and seem to learn from this. The role of randomness likely has little to do with learning.

Yeah, but that cutback maneuver a lot of small game animals use may work on owls and hawks, but it sucks when you’re trying to miss them in a car. It may be instinctive but it doesn’t work with a few thousand pounds of car coming at them.

I have a pile of logs about 60 yards from my kitchen window. Every day I sprinkle about 2 pounds of bird seed over and around it to feed the brave birds that over winter here including: mourning doves, chickadees, tree sparrows. junkos, cardinals, etc. A hawk will occasionally swoop down for a meal. When that happens the logs “explode” with a burst of birds flying in all directions and the hawk will end up chasing one that happens to be going the same direction.
Last year I noticed some hawks have developed a new hunting approach. A hawk would swoop in at about 2 -3 yards above the ground causing the birds to scatter as usual. But, about one second behind it was a second hawk traveling at the same speed and approach angle that easily grabbed any bird it wanted. This double teaming action will require a different response from the prey birds. Their best approach will be to duck and cover (or grab a stick and spear the predator).
I’m waiting to see which birds are first to learn the new trick.

@LuckyGuy You’ll have to set out some sharpened sticks to make the contest more interesting.

@Adirondackwannabe I was thinking I could leave an opened package of toothpicks or shish kabob skewers around. Gotta’ stick up for the underdog.

The birds out there are a microcosm of human interactions. The seed eaters work hard all day scratching to collect food for themselves and their young. They get along peacefully with other birds and those of other species. They hang around in small flocks helping each other find food and stay warm.
And then their peace is shattered by one nasty hawk that decided rather than scratch all day for seeds it is easier to simply eat a bird that has been doing all the work.
The small birds outnumber the hawks 20 to 1 and they can see 360 degrees at close distances. Imagine if they figured out how to fight back or use a sacrificial sick volunteer to poison the predator.
I try to give them advice from the kitchen window but they never listen.

Interesting analogy. That is true. Hawks are like the criminals in the human population.

Animals use a mix of instinct and learned behaviors.

@LuckyGuy , That is an interesting response by the hawks. I wonder if that is part of their usual repertoire or if it is learned behavior. I dismiss the possibility that they called a meeting and discussed it.

@LostInParadise I’ve never seen that type of attack before but they clearly have mastered it. They fly parallel to the ground and, using my apple tree spacing for reference, one trails the other by about 60 ft. The first one flies by, the prey birds take off, and the second one makes the “poof” of feathers. They then head off into the woods. I do not know if they share or whether they take turns being lead bird. I suppose this could be something for National Geographic to study.

Humans have the same “random behavior generator”. Ours is just over-layered with additional cognitive processes.

Using fMRI, researchers have scanned the brains of (human) subjects as they’re presented with simple choices. They can very accurately predict which choice has been made before the subject becomes consciously aware of the choice himself. The choosing, then, happens at a subconscious level, based on non-cognitive processes like conditioning. In most cases, the output of these processes gets handed up to higher level cognitive functions for further processing, essentially to check that it “makes sense” (which often just means constructing a story that satisfactorily explains the choice that has, in effect, already been made).

Non-human animals, for the most part, dispense with the further cognitive processing and act directly on the unconscious impulse. Humans occasionally do this too; sometimes that turns out to be the best strategy.

@LostInParadise I did a quick search for “raptor cooperative hunting” and “team hunting behavior in hawks” and found that it is not as uncommon as I thought. Cooperative hunting means one one individual will give up any chance of taking the prey so the other individual can be successful and they can share the prize. There were many interesting examples. Who knew?
No we need to teach the chickadees how to wield a shish kabob skewer.

Very interesting. Since hawks are usually solitary hunters, I wonder what kind of communication has to take place to coordinate such behavior. It is much trickier than a pack of wolves coordinating an attack. Group behavior is the default mode for wolves, and who gets first dibs on the kill depends on rank. It is a lot more complex when you have to take turns, like the hawks do.

I’d say as @marinelife mentions, a mix of instinctual and learned behaviors.
Most of the time animals react spontaneously, and just seem to know which maneuvers are the most effective. We have a good sized flock of Canada geese in our pastures and pond right now, it’s breeding season, and we have one pair setting up a nest on top of the horse barn where the goslings can hop down into the deep grass, uninjured and toddle off to the pond. This same pair made their nest their last year as well.

It is also amazing to watch them come in for a landing on the pond and deftly maneuver their way in so as not to land on, or knock over any of the others.
Now…domestic animals are another thing, much of their behavior is learned.
Just try to take off or put on the horses blankets BEFORE feeding time and you’re in for an aerobic exercise in dancing horses. lol “Whoa dammit, I said WHOA!”

@Coloma I recall reading somewhere that shorebirds, geese, ducks, etc. can land in formation because they align their take off and landing patterns with the prevailing wind. Absent wind, or unusual body of water shape, they follow the Earth’s magnetic field N-S.

Is your pond circular? Have you noticed more North South take offs and landings?

@LuckyGuy Yes, mostly circular with a little jetty zone. I’ll have to observe and post later.
The property and pond face east towards the mountains so it does seem as if their landings are from the south east and take offs North west maybe?

Animals are wired to think and behave in certain ways. Science will never find it because it is not a scientific thing. Animals are designed to do certain things at specific times in specific ways. The animal has some influence, but overall cannot stop being who they are. You can get a whale to jump at a suspended ball, but they will not continue doing it if set free in the wild and not prompted by humans. When ducks fly South, they did not hold meetings to decide what day and time to take flight and who would take what shift flying up front, neither did the salmon before going back up the same stream they were born to spawn. It is good science tries, but they will never find their answer even though it is quite evident before their face.

@LostInParadise, I live on the outskirts of town and daily sit on my front porch and watch the activities of the birds here in the Midwest. Hawks here nearly always fly in pairs (I imagine that they are mates).

@Adirondackwannabe, If it criminal to be carnivore then anyone who is not a vegetarian is a criminal.

@Bill1939 Anyone who is not a vegan, really – dairy and egg production require disposal of the vast majority of male calves and chicks, and of the females too as they age out of their high-production youth. It’s all a bloody business in the end.

@wildpotato I believe that a vegan is a vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet.

With animals it’s all instinct/energy their behaviors are based on those things nature is a wonderful thing, animals don’t have a rational or logic mind like humans do though we’d like to probably think so.

While play by the very young intimating the actions of others is partly initiated by instinct, I think that it also has some randomness. There would be no variability in behavior were it wholly determined by instinct. Without it, adaptation would be unlikely. Consider Skinner’s demonstration of superstitious behaviors by pigeons when food was dispensed randomly.