A German border collie has surprised scientists with his 200-word vocabulary and uncanny knack for learning new words, shedding light on the evolution of language.Of course, not every dog has this ability. Our dog Curlie Sue confuses her name Curlie with our cat's nickname Duney. So when I call for Duney, Curlie comes running. I think she responds to my tone of voice; Curlie recognizes that I speak in a certain way when I'm talking to pets.
Nine-year-old Rico knows the names of each toy in his hundred-strong collection and can retrieve items called out to him with over 90% accuracy. He can also learn and remember the names of unfamiliar toys after just one encounter, putting him on a par with a three-year-old child.
Here's the concluding paragraph of the Nature Science update:
Whether Rico's accomplishments are the result of an exceptional mind or exceptional training is not known. But some of his talent may be down to good breeding: border collies are working dogs, evolutionarily selected to obey human instructions.A quibble: selective breeding is not evolution, unless you call evolution by unnatural selection evolution.
