Photo Credit - belgianchocolate
Humans have grown used to a sense of exclusivity. Many of use believe we are the only intelligent life in the Universe. Most of us think we are at least the only intelligent life on Earth. However, intelligence comes in many forms and perhaps our own inability to see it is in fact a sign of our lack of intelligence.
At most we might give a pass to Great Apes. They are distant kin. They look like us. We’ve heard stories of their use of tools independent of humans, demonstrating the ability to plan ahead, and gorillas with IQs higher than most people who watch the MTV. Even monkeys, as I posted about before, figured out how to use other animals for transportation.
However, what about other animals? The inspiration for this post came from an article posted on Propeller.com today about Crows dropping stones in water vessels in order to raise the water level and ultimately eat something floating in it. The evidence suggest that Crows have the ability to plan and problem solve. Amazing, indeed.
A little googling revealed some other neat facts:
Dogs are believed to be better at reading human social behavior than our nearest primates relatives including language processing and interpreting hand gestures. The former article is especially interesting because it raises questions on what language truly is.
While not necessarily a sign of intelligence, many people’s belief that “homosexuality is a sin against nature”, might show our own unintelligent view of the animal kingdom.
Dolphins, which I assume most people think are somewhat intelligent, might be superior in intelligence to humans, depending on how you quantify it.
I’ll add a few more examples as I find them, but I intend not to make this list exhaustive. Do some research on your own. However, at least consider for a bit what “intelligence” means to you and where we fit in with a world of animals whose intelligence level approaches our own. Now, if my girlfriend’s dog were only smart enough to realize my roommate just put on a different hat when she barks at him like a stranger…
Related Links:
- Birds Tool Use Called “Amazing” via (Live Science)
- Birds Tool Use Called “Amazing” (via Propeller.com)
- Monkeys Ride Giant Rodents (via BlaineGarrett.com)
- Monkeys Ride Giant Rodents (via Youtube.com)
- Chimpanzees Learned Tool Use Long Ago Without Human Help via (Live Science)
- Stone Throwing Chimpanzees demonstrate Human-Like Behavior via LA times
- Dogs Get Gestures as Well as Humans via Discovery.com
- Dogs Understand Human Language via Wired.com
- Homosexual Behavior in Animals via Wikipedia
