Pigeons understand the concepts of time and space.

Pigeons are often animals that bring a lot of disturbance to the inhabitants of large cities, mainly because of noise and dirt - some try everything to get rid of them, such as a church that has found a way to hypnotize them. Interestingly, even with such a small head and supposedly limited brain, these birds are able to grasp abstract concepts such as time and space.

"In fact, the cognitive prowess of these birds is now considered increasingly close to that of human and nonhuman primates, " explained Edward Wasserman, a researcher at the University of Iowa who is responsible for discovering the brain capacity of pigeons. Scientists have shown that birds understand these concepts by using different brain areas from those of similarly perceived primates.

Wasserman has been studying the intelligence of pigeons, crows, baboons and other animals for over 40 years and says he was surprised by the mental capacity of birds considered "urban pests" by most people. "Bird nervous systems are capable of far greater achievements than the pejorative term 'bird brain' suggested, " he added.

The research was done using computer screens displaying short and long lines exposed at different time periods. Pigeons had to relate a short period to a short line, and so on, through pecks on the screen. Then both the lines and the durations had new dimensions, showing that the birds were able to follow this new learning.

Humans and other mammals make this distinction of time and space in an area of ​​the brain called the parietal cortex, which does not exist in the pigeons organ, making the discovery even more interesting. Therefore, there may be some similar evolutionary mechanism of the central nervous system between early primates and early birds.