halvargmx.de
Date: Wed Jul 20 2005 - 01:52:16 CDT

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While we're on the topic of subspecies:

http://www.n-tv.de/557590.html (in german)

On some Island in the Atlantik, a group of mice has learnt they can
kill a young albatross if they gang up in very large numbers. This seems
to be the first case of learned behaviour being passed on over generations
in mice. They're apparently pretty effective, putting the death rate of
young albatross' into the 80 % range.

Learned behaviour can have interesting consequences for the evolution
of subspecies: By learning a new technique, a group of animals changes the
landscape in which they evolve (in the above example, individual strength
of a mouse might not be as important as communcation capabilities), which
will lead to this group being put under different evolutionary pressures,
which
will lead to the forming of a subspecies in the long run.

Wee. Evolution is too much fun.

Cheers,
Halvar

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