Where do atheists get their morality from?

[Cyberman]

Oh, and I'll throw in a fascinating, but totally unrelated, example from the animal kingdom for Stimbo. They had trained several dolphins to recognize a symbol on a placard, and based on the symbol, perform a specific trick. Now one of the symbols was special, it indicated that the dolphin was supposed to improvise a trick. When shown that symbol, the dolphin would determine what to do. So they put two dolphins together and showed them the sign for improvising a trick. At first, they didn't seem to get it. So they were shown the sign again. The two dolphins submerged, and a short time later, both dolphins surfaced and did the same trick in tandem. (I believe this was from an episode titled, "How smart are animals?" I believe it was a Nova ScienceNOW episode, but am unsure.

As you say, fascinating. I've heard of similar experiments with dolphins though not come across this one before. My favourite involved a special 'keyboard', a large box with an array of portholes in which, behind glass, were a range of dolphin-appropriate items: a ball, a shoe, a bukkit, etc. Each porthole was large enough for a dolphin to stick his snout in, breaking a light beam, triggering a pre-recorded voice speaking the relevant word and whichever item was selected given to the dolphin as a reward. The idea as I understand it was that the dolphin could use it to communicate to the experimenters which item they wanted to have at any one time. For some unknown reason, the 'key' corresponding to the word "tuna" proved to be the most popular.

As another example more in the spirit of yours, involving one animal learning from another: I mentioned earlier that we used to have three dogs, Ben the eldest, William the young teen and Elly the baby of the group. Whenever the time came for their feeding, all we needed to do was say to William "go and find your dish" and he would immediately run to fetch it, then tear-arse around the house to find the others'. If he couldn't find them (and I suspect he occasionally hid them) we'd say "try the garden" and he'd run outside looking for the dishes until he'd found them all and returned them. Like all dogs I suppose, he would carry each dish with it clamped in his jaws, his front teeth using the hand-hold hole in the side as a handle. Now, Elly would watch him do this, and you could alsmost see the cogs turning in her brain as she worked out how to do it herself.

I shall never forget the moment when she decided to have a go at carrying her dish. She bent forward, clamped it in her jaws as William did, then straightened up. Unfortunately, whereas William held the dish with it hanging downward naturally, Elly had chosen to pick up the dish upside-down, such that her nose was inside it and it covered her face. As a result she couldn't see where she was going and ended up bumping into the table and the walls etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19421217

You were saying....

Maybe the Jays like eating maggots or flies. What do you think they were doing?

Clearly they do enjoy those things, otherwise I rather suspect they wouldn't bother. The point, however, is not that they went to investigate the dead bird but that they do it as a group, calling to each other such that everyone gets to eat rather than just one selfish individual as animals are supposed to be, at least according to those I've seen who hold that only humans are capable of such altruism. Note that there is no need for them to do this: they forage for food as a group, as this naturally gives them a greater chance of finding it. However, finding the dead bird means they have located a (potential) food source; it's in the best interests of the bird/s that found it to keep it to themselves. There is no requirement for the discoverer/s to tell the rest of the group. Yet they do.