Animal Intelligence

OLYMPIA, Washington — A fierce group of raccoons has killed 10 cats, attacked a small dog and bitten at least one pet owner who had to get rabies shots, residents of Olympia say.
Some have taken to carrying pepper spray to ward off the masked marauders and the woman who was bitten now carries an iron [...]

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UC Berkeley offers a number of its courses available online for free download via the iTunes Music Store. One of these courses is IB 31: Animal Behavior taught by Roy Caldwell.
This course, which is provided as a podcast, features lectures with titles such as:

Behavioral Genetics
Is Personality Heritable?
Social Insects
Sexual Selection
Parent-Offspring Interactions
Communication: Do Animals Tell Lies?
Interspecific Communication [...]

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When considering animal intelligence, I also include the fascinating tales of feral children.
Feral children are those who, for whatever reason, have been raised outside the confines of normal human behavior. Most often they find themselves abandoned in the wilderness at a young age. Sometimes they are raised by other animals — monkeys, wolves, etc. [...]

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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 [...]

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Nine days into this blog and I’m already taking a vacation? Sad but true. I’m off to San Francisco for ten days. I’ll be back with more tales of smart animals on the 21st.

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The following passage is excerpted from Go East, Young Man, the autobiography of William O. Douglas, the longest-serving Supreme Court justice in United States history. This episode probably occurs during the mid-1930s in central Washington state.

As Prairie House was being built, I spent my time planting the meadow around the house and watering it. This [...]

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Here’s a report from a Swedish news site about a duck and a chicken that are raising a family together. I don’t read Swedish, but fortunately a Boing Boing reader provided a translation:

A duck and a hen on a farm outside Söderköping have found each other. The duck is now a foster-father to five chickens.
Annika [...]

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My cat Nemo has a favorite rag. It’s like a security blanket. He keeps the thing outside, but he carries it around with him. He plays with it. He sleeps with it. He keeps it in safe spots.
Oliver, a neighbor cat, is a glove thief. If I leave my garden gloves outside, chances are I’ll [...]

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Wikipedia article on animal intelligence
This article marks a fine point to start a blog on the subject.
(tags: mainstream reference)

BBC: Do animals have feelings?
Answer: of course they do.
(tags: animal emotion)

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From the London Telegraph:

Chris Hinds, a court warrants officer, was out walking his own dogs when he saw the alsatian-cross injured and whimpering at the water’s edge. As he approached, it panicked and plunged into the River Tees only to be swept away by the fast-flowing tide on Tuesday evening. Mr Hinds, 43, sent his [...]

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