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.
9 responses so far ↓
1 K // Aug 21, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Will do, on all counts…
2 Lynn // Jun 3, 2008 at 7:14 pm
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.
3 Terri // Jul 30, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Excellent, excellent site. Consider yourself linked.
4 Mary Shafer // Sep 29, 2008 at 9:02 pm
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!
5 Roberta Beach Jacobson // Nov 18, 2008 at 4:29 pm
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.
6 Marcello // Nov 29, 2008 at 8:49 am
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
7 Mercedes Rodriguez // Dec 1, 2008 at 11:34 am
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?
8 Mercedes Rodriguez // Dec 1, 2008 at 11:41 am
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?
9 Peter // Dec 18, 2008 at 12:26 pm
link for you: http://zootoo.nypost.com/petnews/petcatkeepsorangutanalive-1064
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