Another nail in the coffin of the search for abilities that are unique to homo sapiens -- 2 new studies, one involving orangutans and bonobos, the other jays, have found the ability to plan for the future (beyond the well-established behavior of food caching -- storing food for later does not necessarily involve forethought; it may simply be a fixed pattern of behavior). (Science report) It seems increasingly clear that all human cognitive attributes can be seen in more primitive form in other animals (something which I don't find to be a stunning conclusion, but then I've always talked about non-human animals, rather that the unadorned "animals", which implies we're not one of them).

And while we're on the subject, there's a report in about the apparent ability of a West African monkey called a putty-nosed monkey (isn't that a wonderful name?) to make sentences of a kind. It appears these monkeys can put together 2 different alarm calls to create urgent warnings.