Animal Intelligence

[bronson]

What animals / or creatures that you encounter in your day to day life do you perceive to be the most intelligent and why?

I'll start with crows, they always seem to do things at just the opportune moment. They are seen only when they want to be, find food to scavenge with ease, and avoid dangerous situations very effectively. Many birds will sit in the road to the point you have to slow down to not hit them when driving. Crows always seem to fly off before this becomes necessary.

Interested to hear what others observe with this sort of thing.

 

[Foreigner]

If you really get to know most other living creatures, they are intelligent. Today I was meditating under a tree and there were all these mud wasps (I think some people call them yellow jackets) flying around at ground level gathering for the winter. They would hover by me but move away as soon as they got near me. Without even touching my body they could sense that I was something they didn't want to deal with, and flew in the other direction.

There was a huge wolf spider in the alley behind my home that made a spider web between two buildings, using very long threads of web. It was also windy out and this web blew back and forth in the breeze but it never broke. I'm just wondering how the spider strung the initial guide wires of web between the two buildings -- it seems almost impossible. Tonight when I came home I noticed a second spider had joined it, and now there are two webs in the gap between the buildings. Amazing!

I think if people assume animals are smart, they will start to see the intelligence for themselves. It's when people expect something to be stupid and worthless that they are blinded to how amazing these creatures are.

 

[T. Calderone]

Bluejays are very intelligent birds. My son used to scatter birdseed out on the patio early in the morning. The pigeons, doves and grackles would wait on the electric wire for the food. The bluejays would hang out in the trees too. But the predatory birds (falcons and hawks) caught on and swoop down within a blink of an eye. All you would see was the victims's bits of feathers as it was flying away with it's prey. The bluejay would give a warning squak and many times the birds would be able to fly to safety. But sometimes they weren't fast enough.

 

[AminoAcid]

I'll start with crows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwRHIuXqMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=ofjo26O0z_o&NR=1

I also remember seeing a video once where they showd that crows could recognize individual humans for 2+ years. Ie: They were trained to see one guy as a threat, so even two years later if they saw him they would swoop at and attack, lol.

 

[Cornishman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyBNWVD70w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIX_6TBeph0&feature=related

 

[T. Calderone]

My ex-husband was a nasty drunk with a real bad temper. He would come back from hours at the bar drunk and beligerant sometimes. As soon as he pulled up in the drive, didn't get out of the car yet my dog would start shaking uncontrollably. He always could sense when we were in for a rough night. I'm so glad I divorced that asshole.

 

[Tude]

^ Yeah, dogs are pretty smart. I'm glad you divorced that asshole, too!

 

[AminoAcid]

@T.Calderone

Sorry to hear about that.

Dogs are amazingly perceptive. I saw an interview on YouTube of a soldier who was in the Vietnam war and who had a dog that they would bring on patrols. One time during the night the dog stopped dead still and refused to go any further. The guy thought the dog had simply lost its nerve, as the jungle apparantly does that to even the bravest of people, but no matter how much coaxing it received the dog just wouldn't budge, so the group they were with kept going anyway. A couple of hundred metres up they were utterly wiped out. Turns out there was a huge Viet-Cong bunker complex, and somehow this dog (it was a german shepherd) had sensed it, whether by smell or God knows how, but in the process saved this guy's life.

I have a golden retriever and her depth of personality never ceases to amaze me.

 

[psychodead]

european magpies are one of the few animals that pass the self awareness test. basically they put a sticker on it where it cant see it and show it a mirror and if it can get the sticker off then it is self aware. the only other animals that have passed the test are great apes, elephants and dolphins. how can they be so clever with their tiny brains? its made me see magpies in a different way when i see them in the street.

 

[spacejunk]

the octopus is another amazingly smart creature. i don't have any particular anecdotes, but i thoroughly agree with this;

I think if people assume animals are smart, they will start to see the intelligence for themselves. It's when people expect something to be stupid and worthless that they are blinded to how amazing these creatures are.

humans seem to be blindsided by our own terms of reference when it comes to intelligence. there are many creatures capable of things we are not. we seem to be the only living creature that lives beyond the means of our natural surroundings, the only animal that destroys the planet with our innovative smarts.
sometimes i look at the violence and bigotry that exists in some humans and wonder if we're really as smart as our collective achievements would suggest.

pigs are really intelligent creatures - it bothers me how humans treat them. it bothers me how humans treat each other, too.

i love getting out of the city from time to time and just seeing the amount of life that exists in the wilderness south of where i live. wherever you look there are creatures living in harmonious balance with everything around them.

 

[Max Power]

My dog is pretty smart. She can bark in seven different languages. Not as impressive as it sounds as they are all closely related Romanic languages.

 

[eireann]

guinea-pigs!!!

 

[naughtynicknails]

the octopus is another amazingly smart creature. i don't have any particular anecdotes, but i thoroughly agree with this;



humans seem to be blindsided by our own terms of reference when it comes to intelligence. there are many creatures capable of things we are not. we seem to be the only living creature that lives beyond the means of our natural surroundings, the only animal that destroys the planet with our innovative smarts.
sometimes i look at the violence and bigotry that exists in some humans and wonder if we're really as smart as our collective achievements would suggest.

pigs are really intelligent creatures - it bothers me how humans treat them. it bothers me how humans treat each other, too.

i love getting out of the city from time to time and just seeing the amount of life that exists in the wilderness south of where i live. wherever you look there are creatures living in harmonious balance with everything around them.

Octopuses are incredibly smart in the puzzle solving department.. but their memory is shit.. they could learn one thing one day and do it all day.. the next day they'd have to learn it again..

(unscrewing a lid was one problem it managed to solve.. but then forgot by the next day)..

I don't see these animals day by day but they amaze me..

These are of Kanzi, a bonobo..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_opEeCllL1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRM7vTrIIis

Dolphins..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwJaUFHs-C4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsl5FUGomVA


I find it amazing that the same species of dolphin will have different accents / languages to others from another part of the world / pod and will have their own tips and tricks to catch fish..

Killer Whales..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPge_0lea3o

Elephants..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLkyzdxRNGg

There are many many other amazing signs of intelligence that these animals show and use I just don't have the time to find em all

Great Apes, Dolphins, Whales and Elephants rule the intelligence world of the animal kingdom (exluding human beings)..