RE those pigeons

I would say yes, it is embarrassing. Not for gnu specifically, but for all humans. We set great store by our intelligence and it is good for us to occasionally be reminded that it is not always as useful as it is made out to be. There is little doubt that the students in the experiment were using their intelligence: they were just using it wrongly. And, time and again, we all do that. We are not talking about simple mistakes here, but the absolute insistance that we always know best.