Is there something like Animal Intelligence?

Yesterday while I was busy chasing cats, I found in the stowage an old issue of National Geographic magazine. It had a cover story on animal intelligence. It made for interesting reading.

I wonder if you have harboured wishes of having conversations with animals, remember Dr Dolittle? 🙂

Animal Intelligence

Animals are smarter than most of us think them to be. Animals have always had intellectual abilities however what fauna friends refer to as intelligence might be entirely different from human definitions. It’s like searching for life in far off galaxies, but then life forms on a particular planet may be in contrast with what we have here.

We have chimpanzees demonstrating teamwork, dolphins enchanting humans with their understanding and dogs and kittens forming emotional empathy with their human friends. We have Dogbert, the CEO dog from Dilbert comics. Hobbes, the philosopher tiger from Calvin & Hobbes and who can forget the likes of the lazy cat Garfield and heroics of Superman’s dog Krypto?

Fictional, you say?

Well, how about this, Betsy, the now-famous dog has a vocabulary of more than 300 words, knows 15 people by name and can retrieve objects seen in photographs or the deceased parrot Alex who gave avian intelligence new dimensions with his smart as a whip behaviour.

Then, there’s Chaser, the amazing dog, who knows words like “sit,” “fetch,” and “roll-over” adding up to an astounding 1,000 words!

Do Scientists believe in Animal Intelligence?

Animals are intellectual creatures, but can they recognize themselves? The question of animal self-awareness has intrigued humans for ages. While we can’t borrow their brains for a test drive, scientists have developed some ingenious methods to peek into their understanding of themselves and the world around them.

The most well-known test is the mirror test, devised by Gordon Gallup Jr. in 1970. Here, the animal meets its reflection with a mark on its body, unseen by itself. If the animal investigates the mark, it’s considered to recognize itself and possess self-awareness.

Chimps, orangutans, dolphins, elephants, and even magpies have passed the mirror test, hinting at self-recognition. However, it’s not foolproof. The test is heavily reliant on vision, potentially excluding creatures with superior senses of smell or touch, like our canine companions.

The quest for understanding animal awareness goes beyond reflections. Scientists are exploring alternative approaches:

• The Self-Directed Marking Test: This test utilizes a substance that only shows a mark under UV light. If the animal investigates the mark under UV light, it suggests they recognize the foreign mark on their own body.
• The Anesthetic Recovery Test: Animals are monitored after anesthesia to see if they touch areas where they were injected, indicating body awareness.
• Social Intelligence Tests: How animals interact with each other can shed light on their understanding of emotions, intentions, and perspectives of others. An animal that deceives another or comforts a distressed companion might possess a more complex form of awareness.

These tests provide fascinating insights into the animal mind, but they don’t offer definitive answers. A failed test doesn’t necessarily mean an animal lacks self-awareness; it might just mean they approach the test differently.

The journey to understand animal consciousness is a continuous exploration. By combining these methods and considering the unique sensory world of each species, we can keep unlocking the mysteries of their inner lives.

In 2012, a group of some of the most brilliant thinkers of our time, including Stephen Hawking, came together to declare that animals do in fact have emotions:

“The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”

See Also: Albert Einstein and his pets

Still, got doubts? Look into the eyes of any animal in your vicinity, if you look with the belief you would for sure see the warmth of love. And believe me; any species capable of love is for sure, intelligent!

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