Thinking Animals - National Geographic Explorer

[Pianomahnn]

I caught the last 20 minutes or so of this episode and would like to list a few of the awesome things I witnessed.

Parrots. Well, one parrot, really. A parrot that has been in training with a biologist since the 1970s. This parrot has the logical ability to follow questions and forumlate answers with its 100 word english vocabulary. Example; an original collage of objects on a board, some blue, and some green, the shapes include cars, blocks, and some other deals. The question: "How many green block?" The correct answer: "Two." A parrot who has never seen this collage of objects was able to distinguish from each different object the color and type of object it was, and also count. Another example; two keys, different colors, different sizes. The question "Color bigger?" (or something close to that), and the correct answer, "Yellow." Other feats included the ability to request objects and identify objects or actions (shower, going away).

Next was primates, specifically exciting were the great apes and self awareness. Monkies are unable to figure out the reflection the mirror (even one living with the mirror for 15 years.) Great apes, however, can. Young chimpanzees (0-5 years) are not quite self aware, and do not understand the reflection. Older chimpanzees, however, need only up to 30 minutes to realize the reflection in the mirror is themselves, and they use it to explore portions of their bodies never seen before (inside of mouth, etc).

The phrase "monkey see, monkey do" is not very accurate. Monkies cannot immitate a human's actions, but the orangutange (sp) can. Washing clothes, for example, and washing ones self was the video they showed. Supposedly immitating actions is a very complex logical feat.

I really wish I had seen this whole episode. It lends itself to some thinking of just how advanced humans are in the animal world.

Comments?

[euphorbia]

I think we try to hold other creatures up to ourselves and measure their worth or intelligence on how they stack up to us.
I don’t particularly care for that reasoning.
From elephants passing down knowledge to each other to the perfect efficient shape of the honey comb to the fact that a Hippo will stay and protect its mate's dead body from the crocodiles until it nears starvation...I think all those things are testament to the intelligence and emotional richness of creatures (just to name a few that we can identify with, others are beyond us surely) some choose to brush off as mere mindless instinctive machines because so much about them is so different than us and most people are unable to comprehend anything other than what they know or have trouble putting value on things they themselves cant relate to. I don’t think the human should be referencing themselves as end all to intelligence or embodiment of perfection and putting more value on creatures that resemble us in some way.



long live the run-on sentence. :D

[Pianomahnn]

I took a philosphy class in jr. college, and the professor was dead set on that "mindless instinct" theory for animals. It was impossible to prove him wrong.

Many animals know their own world's right from wrong. A nip on the ass from the momma, and the baby won't do it again. It's the same stuff humans do, only we're able to communicate to each other about discepline and morals, and the lions can't talk to us the same way.

One thing I left out in my original post, which just hit me, is a certain code of conduct in colonies of rhesus monkies. If one comes upon food, it is common practice to make a "food call" for other monkies to know of the find, and if this doesn't take place, it is often an "ass kickin" which occurs.

Animals aren't stupid, there is some good stuff churning in their minds.

[MAC]

You have to squint your mental eye and just look at the shapes.

All the processes animals go through to live aren't just to survive. Its not like when you go camping and "rough it". They are adapting and learning how to use those adaptations to thrive under the average conditions of their environments and survive in the extremes. Many of these adaptations takes thousands of years to develope. Some take a couple generations. But the animal must have the ability to utilize them. This is a case of using the tools at hand. We apply our interpretation of which tools mean intelligence and then smile at how human they are.
Well, like it or not, the human part of you that shows up in the mirror is animal just like all the rest of the creatures at the zoo.

We are using a tool that allows us to adapt to and even thrive in places where we are not physically suited to live.
The human part of us is the part that, for some unknown reason, wants to be in these places.