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better than half our interns (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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Twitter post from Moonlit Sentences Arizona DOT installed a wildlife camera at Route 87's pedestrian crossing outside Payson last September. Standard deer migration count. After six months, they had footage of zero deer and 147 clips of the same coyote pressing the crosswalk button with its paw at sunrise. The animal waits for the walk signal. Steps into the road. Crosses at a trot. Every single time. Biologists believe it learned by watching hikers at the adjacent trailhead. "It's not random," said the lead researcher. "That coyote understands cause and effect better than half our interns." DOT voted unanimously to keep the camera running. The coyote hasn't jaywalked once.
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[–] 38 points 3 months ago (6 children)

And why is there one in the middle of nowhere

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  • [–] 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    For the coyote

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I do believe I used to watch a documentary about a Coyote in the desert, and quite a bit of that involved it on a paved road as well. I do believe it understood more complicated things than just pressing crosswalk buttons, if I recall it flat out knew how to place orders from an Acme Catalog an assemble quite a few fairly complex machines.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago

    As someone who lived in the Mojave desert for nearly a decade, that part isn't that weird. Double yellow and weird spacing in the crosswalk are pretty obvious but a crosswalk that appears to be in the middle of nowhere is quite standard where I was at.

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