Animal Intelligence

they’re smarter than you think…

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Entries Tagged as 'Behavior'

The Dog, the Cat, and the Rat

May 5th, 2008 · 4 Comments

By far my favorite aspect of animal intelligence are the stories of interspecies friendships. A goat that hangs out with tiger cubs? A pig that befriends a bear? A moose and a tern who are inseparable? These sorts of things make my day. I want to believe that on some level, all animals are capable [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Cute · Interspecies · Movies

Squirrel Smarts (Times Two)

April 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Here’s one a couple months old. The 20 January 2008 edition of the Toronto Star reported on two new stuides about the brains of squirrels.
First, from the journal Animal Behaviour (which sounds like something I need to be reading!), biologist Michael Steele at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania has been examining how squirrels cache nuts. Apparently, [...]

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Tags: Behavior

A Cold Shower: More Elephants in Love

March 21st, 2008 · No Comments

In an older post about elephants in love, Lynne shared the following story. With her permission, I’m posting it as an entry.
I volunteered at a zoo back in the 1970’s doing animal behavior observations with elephants and others.  I spent one hour each week observing and recording what I saw.
One week I watched the herd [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Motives · Stories

Moko, the Heroic Dolphin

March 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments

“You’re home blogging full-time now,” a friend wrote me recently. “Does that mean there’s a chance you’ll revive Animal Intelligence? Again?” Why sure!
A couple of people sent me this BBC News story about a New Zealand dolphin that helped to rescue a pair of beached whales. Due to copyright issues, I’ve been trying not to [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Interspecies · Rescues

Kitten in a Bathtub

January 5th, 2008 · 5 Comments

People keep sending me animal intelligence links, but I haven’t found the time to post them. Instead, here I am on a Saturday morning posting a video of a cat in a bathtub.

Have you ever seen such behavior? Most of my cats hate water. I have one, Max, who will drink from the faucet, and [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Cute · Movies

Elephants in Love

December 6th, 2007 · 3 Comments

In August, the Guardian Unlimited reported on an elephant love story. It’s a short piece, so I’ll quote it in its entirety:

It’s a very traditional love story — just on a bigger scale than usual. A tame female elephant has fled an Indian circus after eloping with a wild bull elephant that broke open a [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events · Motives

More Animal Drunkards: The Fruit of the Marula Tree

November 15th, 2007 · No Comments

After yesterday’s story about drunken elephants, an Animal Intelligence reader pointed me to this video clip from the 1974 documentary Animals Are Beautiful People. In this scene, a variety of animals get a little tipsy from consuming fermented marula fruit.

According to the Wikipedia entry on this film, some critics believe this scene was staged. It’s [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Movies

Drunken Elephants Come to Shocking End

November 14th, 2007 · 1 Comment

I’ve read many reports of animals who love alcohol just as much as humans do. But until now, I never knew that their wild parties could lead to drunken brawls. The West Australian has a story about a herd of elephants that had a little too much beer and then went on a rampage. Here’s [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events

Oscar the Cat Predicts Patients’ Deaths

August 20th, 2007 · No Comments

Animals are often credited with possessing an uncanny sixth sense, a level of perception beyond those that we as humans possess. Some people believe that animals are able to sense barometric changes and can be used as an indicator of impending rain. (I never believed this until recently when we were hit with an unexpected [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Interspecies · Stories

Video: Christian the Lion Reunited with Humans Who Raised Him

August 16th, 2007 · 5 Comments

Nicole forwarded an amazing video. Christian the lion was raised by humans and then released into the wild. Watch the cat’s reaction when these people return to see him a year later.

After a year apart, after a year in the wild, Christian still recognizes his old friends and greets them with enthusiasm. Aside from [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Interspecies · Movies

Cats and Chickens = BFF

August 12th, 2007 · No Comments

I’m back from vacation and eager to write more about animal intelligence. While I was gone, a couple of readers (this site has readers!) forwarded stories about amazing animals. I’ll share those in the coming days.
For now — and seemingly at random, I know — here are several clips of chickens who live with cats. [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Interspecies · Movies

The Elephant Bandit

June 3rd, 2007 · No Comments

My friend Dave pointed me to a brief story at NPR’s “Morning Edition”. Here it is in full:
If you’re an elephant turned bandit, you don’t need a gun; a couple of pointy tusks will do. The Hindustan Times reports an elephant bandit is holding up motorists in the eastern state of Orissa. His modis operandi [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events

The Best of Planet Earth, part one

May 28th, 2007 · 1 Comment

On strong recommendations from friends, my wife and I have been watching Planet Earth, the BBC nature documentary recently broadcast on The Discovery Channel. The cinematography is gorgeous, and I love the insights into animal behavior.
I can’t give the project unequivocal praise, though. The writing is sometimes uneven, and some episodes lack any real [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Movies

Kruger National Park: Battle Between Buffalo, Lions, and Crocs

May 24th, 2007 · 6 Comments

Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. It lies nestled in the northeast corner of the country, next to Mozambique and close to Zimbabwe. The reserve is home to a variety of flora and fauna.
YouTube user Jason275 has posted footage captured by a group on safari inside the park. Beside a [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Movies

Tortoise vs. Cat

May 14th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Here’s another in a long line of videos where I’m unsure what I’m seeing. The person who posted this at YouTube wrote, “A tortoise in our garden defends it’s territory against invading cats.”

Is the tortoise playing? Is it angry? (I lean toward the latter.) Are the cats hurting it when they respond? It doesn’t look [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Motives · Movies

Bats Fight Drunkenness with Sugar

April 30th, 2007 · No Comments

Lynn forwarded a story from Fox News about bats who have learned how to sober up when they become intoxicated.

Bats often risk getting drunk off cocktails of alcohol that stew inside ripened fruit. And just as driving is dangerous for intoxicated humans, so is flying for drunken bats.
Now scientists find bats are savvy enough to [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events · Research

The Cat Who Rode the Bus

April 11th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Amanda sent a story of a cat who rides the bus. According to the London Daily Mail, a mystery cat has been hitching a ride for the past few weeks.

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings — he then jumps off [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events · Motives

Can Panda Porn Save a Species?

March 30th, 2007 · No Comments

Fox News, of all places, is reporting that officials at a zoo in northern Thailand are hoping that “panda porn” will encourage animals in their possession to mate.

Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big screen television watching panda porn. Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events

Dog Saves Choking Owner

March 28th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Canaduck forward a story about a dog that saved its owner from choking:

Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman’s chest. The dog’s owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.
Debbie Parkhurst, 45, [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Current Events · Stories

Spear-Wielding Chimps Live in Caves, Hunt for Food

March 12th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Here’s an awesome article from New Scientist, and some video to go along with it.

In a revelation that destroys yet another cherished notion of human uniqueness, wild chimpanzees have been seen living in caves and hunting bushbabies with spears. It is the first time an animal has been seen using a tool to hunt a [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Movies · Tools

Some Birds Plan Their Meals

March 6th, 2007 · No Comments

Science News reports that researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered that some birds have a concept of time that includes the future, and that they’re able to plan their meals accordingly.

The strongest evidence yet that animals plan ahead may come from western scrub jays preparing for their morning meals.
Plenty of animals perform actions [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Learning · Research

On Animals and Ego

February 22nd, 2007 · 1 Comment

I had an interesting conversation with my friend Paul last week. We were discussing socially-responsible investing via chat. The conversation eventually turned more philosophical:

5:27:50 PM radiofreewog: I can’t let my ego control my behavior
5:28:05 PM jdroth: ?
5:28:07 PM jdroth: Ego is all there is.
5:28:13 PM jdroth:
5:28:27 PM radiofreewog: hmmm
5:28:42 PM radiofreewog: getting beyond ego [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Motives

Nora, the Piano-Playing Cat

February 21st, 2007 · 2 Comments

This doesn’t show intelligence per se, but it is certainly curious behavior. Here’s Nora, the piano-playing cat:

What prompts animals to do things like this? I cannot believe it’s simply random. It’s certainly not instinctual. (I have friends who believe that all animal behavior is purely instinctive — a position I believe is completely indefensible if [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Motives · Movies

Chimps Eat Herbs to Cure Malaria

February 2nd, 2007 · No Comments

allAfrica.com has a story about how chimpanzees use the same plants as traditional human healers to treat physical ailments.

In her five-year study at Kanyawara research station, located on the edge of Kibale, [Sabrina] Krief found that chimps carefully select and consume plants like mululuza, which have little nutritive value. These plants, however, have medical properties [...]

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Tags: Behavior · Research