Pigeons love to gamble
My friend found this story about how pigeons treat risk (and it turns out that there's lots of other stories on "gambling pigeons" if you take a Google, like this one).
I really enjoyed the story, but it was something that any bird owner can tell you. I have two budgies and a cockatiel, and they "gamble" all the time, especially Muffin the Cockatiel. He knows when a risk won't pay out, or just decides to place all his chips on landing right on our plates (because he can potentially snag something before being shooed away).
It's always a risk to be told that I'm anthropomorphizing, but animals are just as involved in their local economies as people are - they make decisions regarding risk to survive just like we do IMHO. I hope there are more studies like this - it's true that animals are just different cultures sometimes.
I really enjoyed the story, but it was something that any bird owner can tell you. I have two budgies and a cockatiel, and they "gamble" all the time, especially Muffin the Cockatiel. He knows when a risk won't pay out, or just decides to place all his chips on landing right on our plates (because he can potentially snag something before being shooed away).
It's always a risk to be told that I'm anthropomorphizing, but animals are just as involved in their local economies as people are - they make decisions regarding risk to survive just like we do IMHO. I hope there are more studies like this - it's true that animals are just different cultures sometimes.