We feel more rapport with animals every day?we now know that
mice construct road signs so they can find their way around and
birds can be duped by "advertising." Pavel Stopka and David
Macdonald wondered how wood mice find their way through fields.
They discovered the mice move objects around to mark sites that
contain food or a quick route home to their burrow. As the mice
explore, they rear up on their back legs to look for one of
their signposts. Researchers already knew that mice piled up
leaves and twigs, but thought they were hiding their nest holes.
But when some escaped from a box they were being kept in, Stopka
says, "One dug a hole through the side, and the last one out
marked it with a leaf. We repaired the hole?but when we put them
back in they still ran towards the leaf." Store managers know
that if they place an eye-catching sign near an item they want
to sell, more people will buy it. The positioning of items in
stores is considered to be a science. Researchers wanted to find
out if birds could