I’m back from vacation, and have just posted the following as this site’s “about” page.
This is a weblog about animal intelligence. Its premise is that the birds and beasts are smarter than most people credit, that they’re capable of leading rich emotional lives.
I do not believe that animals possess human intelligence. That is not to say that humans are smarter (though this may be true), but that each type of animal has its own thought processes, its own means of evaluating the world. Comparing intelligence across species is a tricky thing.
A couple of important notes:
- I am not a vegetarian.
- I am not an animal-rights activist.
Though I respect both camps, these are not choices I have made for myself. (Though I toy with the idea of vegetarianism.) How do I reconcile my personal choices with my belief that animals are intelligent? I don’t. Cognitive dissonance, my friend, cognitive dissonance. (And an uncomfortable thing it is, too, especially each January when my wife and I hold our annual Ham Feast.)
Animal Intelligence will feature copious quantities of animal stupidity, too. And, because I think it’s a similar topic, I’ll mention feral children from time-to-time. (See the entry coming Monday.)
Basically, if it’s about animals, I’ll publish it. Send me your stuff! If you find something that would work well on this site, drop me a line.
Will do, on all counts…
I recently stumbled upon this video and I didn’t see anything related to it on your site: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE
It’s of an elephant painting… an elephant! It looks like the elephants may be trained to paint, but even so, the care with which they make each brush stroke makes me believe they are thinking intelligently about what they’re doing.
Excellent, excellent site. Consider yourself linked.
That story you posted about Libby, the seeing eye cat, was originally submitted to Readers Digest for their Hero Pets column, so don’t worry — it’s a real story. If you enjoyed that (which I certainly did), you may also like our latest book, “Almost Perfect: Disabled Pets and the People Who Love Them.” Check it out at http://www.almostperfectbook.com!
Excellent topic! I don’t doubt the intelligence of many animals. In fact, some of my cats outdo a few of my former coworkers. No joke.
Would you like to use our Pet News Videos on your blog. See an example on this blog (right column): http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/pets/
Marcello De Luca
CEO
Zootoo.com
I recently saw a nature film which intrigued me. A leopard hunted a female baboon. When dragging it up the tree its baby baboon showed up. The leopard did not do any harm to the baby, all the contrary it treated the orphan with care and mercy, it even went to sleep with the baby baboon nearby. The baby died of hypothermia but was not harmed by the leopard.
I know how house cats can be cruel to their little victims, so the behaviour of the leopard looks remarkable. Would that be a trick of a nature film to make it more interesting or are there cases of predators taking care of their potential victims?
I saw a nature film in which an infant plant eater (I think a bison) was caught by a lion. The herd of frightened adult bisons went immediately away but shortly afterwards they came back all together and scared away the lion freeing the infant bison quite unharmed. I think that this is a remarkable behaviour of a pack of animals not particularly clever and collaborative. Are there many of those cases in which non-social animals collaborate to get some benefit similar to the above?
link for you: http://zootoo.nypost.com/petnews/petcatkeepsorangutanalive-1064
First off I have no problem with people that eat meat as long as they have a reason to do so that makes sense themselves even if I don’t agree with it. Or if they just don’t know any better. But you know better.
Cognitive dissonance is pathetic. You know animals have feelings, you know there’s some intelligence there, that they feel pain, and fear. Yet you continue to financially support an industry that murders so many animals. Though some who are uneducated and love to throw around their poorly researched opinions will say otherwise, doctors have proven that the average vegetarian is just as healthy (in many cases more healthy) then the average meat eater. Taste isn’t an excuse to support killing something you think has thoughts and feelings and a life.
But then, you admit to having no excuse, and you eat meat anyways? With no excuse? That disgusts me I don’t understand how you, someone who knows better, can live with himself.
Cognitive dissonance, please, man up and have the balls to do what you know is right.
Thought you might enjoy this link:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/monkeybusiness.jsp
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/what-happens-when-you-tickle-a-rat-see-for-yourself/
Just found your group – what a great site! I own Lukas the “World’s Smartest Horse” (according to Yahoo and Google) and he’s considered one of the top liberty performers in the country (he performs to benefit horse rescues). I’ve taught him to spell, count, identify shapes, discriminate colors, the concepts of spatial relationships, proportion, same/different and absentness to show the happy results of kind training and that animals are intelligent (not for any cause or money – just a love of learning and animals). Hope everyone enjoys him. Karen
P.S. I’m new to computers his free videos are on his web-site and you-tube
I think/know? that animals are equal/equivalent to us in terms of emotion/intelligence; they are simply different. (By that I mean they have different types of intelligence and rationality, best suited to their environment.) I’m thrilled to see that there are so many people who, at least, do not treat animals like lesser “things”/objects, and give them credit for their abilities. However, I do agree with “some guy” about the fact that you can continue eating meat when you know how much fear and pain they experience on factory farms. Compassion, people!
Hello, I’m working on behalf of the RSPCA to find people who write about animals, in particular pigs, and I came across your site, so I’m emailing to ask if you’d be interested in writing about our latest campaign, Think Pig. We’re raising awareness of pig welfare issues and trying to educate people about the different labels on pork products and what they mean for pigs. Is this something you’d be interested in writing about? I can’t find your email on your site, but if you send me an email I can send you more information and images. Thanks!