Animal Intelligence
We know so little about what goes on inside the minds and in the hearts of all the creatures on the planet. Here are a few videos that give us a glimpse into other species' minds, although they are forced to communicate in our language, under our conditions. Imagine if we could decipher their languages? What a different world that would be...
Scientists now believe elephants are in league with chimpanzees and dolphins as being among the world's most cognitively advanced animals. An experiment reveals that elephants not only cooperate, but that they understand the logic behind teamwork. After quickly learning that the corn in the red buckets could not be successfully acquired alone, elephants would wait for a second "partner" elephant to show up. If the researchers do not release a second elephant, the first elephant would look at the researchers as if to say: "Hello, it takes two to do this. Give me a partner!" A total of 12 male and female elephants from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand, participated.
Oh my! Must watch past 1:50 seconds to see what the elephant is drawing. Although depressing to think these elephants are not living a life free in nature, Thailand no longer has much open rangeland. Elephants in Thailand have for centuries been trained to help humans, and since machinery has replaced their heavy lifting jobs, it currently might be more interesting to live a life filled with daily projects, such as painting, than to be just standing in a fenced enclosure. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center also teaches their elephants to play instruments (to their own tunes) and if they mastered the above rope pulling corn test so easily, at least we know their minds are stimulated. Hard to back track human expansion.
Crows in Japan drop nuts onto cross walks, wait for the nut to be run over, then collect the meat when the light turns red! Now, many of the crows living in this area of Japan have caught on to this technique. Amazing!
Bonobo cooking on a stove with knives!!!
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has been raising and studying Panbanisha, Kanzi and
Matata for years, and as much as possible treats them like they are
human. From the BBC documentary "Chimps are People, Too". www.greatapetrust.org
Just need to watch the first 2 minutes... Kanzi expresses that he is willing to play or 'chase' the visiting reporter. Kanzi is adept at novel sentences, phrases that preclude the learning of specific responses. www.GreatApeTrust.org
This video demonstrates Kanzi's ability to make and use tools. He was shown how to make a sharp flint tool and how to cut rope prior to this film, but he certainly understood what he was taught. Learn
more about Kanzi and Great Ape Trust by visiting www.GreatApeTrust.org.
The lexigrams, abstract symbols representing words, that are used today
by the bonobos at Great Ape Trust. The lexigram panels used by the Trust bonobos represent nearly 400
words. See the full lexigram here: www.greatapetrust.org
Koko has a sign language vocabulary of over 1000 words. Here Koko looks through a new picture book sent to her as a gift. Koko signs about
certain pictures that she likes: for example flowers when she sees some
pretty flowers, red (and lipstick drink) when she sees a picture of red
cats (she used to have a cat named lips lipstick). She also opens the
gift card and signs cat, which is on the cover of the card. When Penny
asks her to select her favorite picture in the book, she of course
selects the red cats. But when Penny asks her to select a picture for
Ron (co-founder Dr. Ron Cohn, her usual photographer and father figure)
she selects the picture of an alligator featuring a large open mouth
full of sharp teeth (alligator toys are Kokos favorites for scaring
people, and herself). When Ron comes over to see Kokos pick, Koko seems a
bit embarrassed and puts her hands over her face to sign unattention. www.koko.org
This is a short memorial to the late silverback gorilla, Michael,
who grew up with Koko, learned sign language with Koko, painted with
Koko, loved Koko as a sister, and passed away in 2000 at the young age
of 27. Michael was a bushmeat orphan, which may explain his
intense emotional and intellectual personality. www.koko.org
A 30-year study at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute has
shown that chimps are able to learn to recognize the numbers 1-9 and
their values. The chimps further show an aptitude for photographic
memory, demonstrated in experiments in which the jumbled digits 1-9 are
flashed onto a computer screen for less than a quarter of a second,
after which the chimp, Ayumu, is able to correctly and quickly point to
the positions where they appeared in ascending order. The same
experiment was failed by the human world memory champion Ben Pridmore on most
attempts. This photographic memory might explain why many monkies have darting eyes, they do not need to focus for long...
A pair of capuchin monkeys work together to solve a
problem using tools, and then share the reward fairly. They seem
to understand fairness: when unequal rewards are given to one monkey and
not another, the monkey receiving the lesser treat would rather go
hungry than accept anything less than an equal reward. From the BBC documentary "Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle"
Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence
in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid
behavior, he's come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond
between animal and human. Corvid's have the largest brain of any bird. Fascinating...
Chaser the Border Collie understands over 1000 nouns.
Alliston Reid and John Pilley of Wofford College in South Carolina have been
training Chaser for the last 4 years, 4 to 5 hours a day. On NOVA here: www.pbs.org Good article about them here: www.nytimes.com
Self-aware dolphins in captivy have been taught 400 of our words...not bad considering we do not know one of theirs and they live in a completely different environment. A sad fact about dolphins is that if a family member is in trouble, a dolphin will not abandon them, oft times leading to the death of a whole family. More here: NOVA - How Smart are Animals? www.pbs.org
The pig here is asked to place the ball in the center of the green. Instead of attempting to get the ball into it, the pig simply lifts the green over the ball. Professor Stanley Curtis of Penn State University found that pigs play and excel at joystick-controlled video games. He observed that they are “capable of abstract representation” and “are able to hold an icon in the mind and remember it at a later date.” Professor Curtis says that “there is much more going on in terms of thinking and observing by these pigs than we would ever have guessed.” Pigs are much smarter than dogs, according to the research, and even did better at video games than some primates. Says Dr. Sarah Boysen, Curtis’ colleague, “[Pigs] are able to focus with an intensity I have never seen in a chimp.” Many scientists believe pigs are as smart as 3 year old humans. www.rps.psu.edu/probing/pigs.html
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the photographer set up to get the shots...
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