“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” – Albert Einstein
Now, the analogy here definitely pertains to humans, and I mention this only because if it was truly analogous to wild animals then it would be incredibly wrong in one major respect; the fish couldn’t care less what we think or judge it to be. But it is still an interesting idea; how intelligent are animals, really?
I have recently been reading an interesting book entitled “Are we smart enough to understand how smart animals are?” in which Frans de Waal discusses a myriad number of interesting animal behaviours; not necessarily worrying about the underlying processes producing the complex and intriguing behaviours but rather just noting them, and so noting that animals are not the unfeeling automatons that many believe them to be.
So, what defines intelligence? There is a thought experiment wherein a human is abducted by an alien civilisation that’s primary sense is smell, a sense that is incredibly potent in most of the animals we find out here. They place the human in a cage with a number of “basic” olfactory clues as to how to escape. To the aliens, this concept is easy, a child of their species could do it in minutes, and yet the human wanders around aimlessly, mewing helplessly to be freed. And thus, the aliens can conclude that the human is a non-intelligent being, with no complex thoughts or feelings. And probably keep it in a zoo to be ogled at by the rest of their kind.
De Waal cites a huge number of examples of what could be called intelligent behaviour throughout the book; chimps engaging in teamwork, communicating through gestures what each member needs to do in order to gain a reward that is then shared by all members; sheep remembering other sheep’s faces; paper wasps recognising and acknowledging different wasps based purely on vision; orangutans, crows and otters making and using tools.
Dolphins acknowledging the distress of another dolphin that had been stunned by an underwater blast and keeping it buoyed and level at the surface, able to breathe, until that individual had recovered; and a number of different species including chimpanzees and elephants showing “awareness of self” in a mirror test, an indicator that they are aware of their place in the world, something we have always only attributed to humans and counted as a large contributing factor to the somewhat ill-defined idea of “Consciousness.”
Other animals have shown the development of culture, imitating the actions or “styles” of others over long periods of time, even generations. Note that these actions or styles are often not related to survival or of any benefit to the species, but rather something that that group of individuals just do.
Aristotle, one of history’s greatest philosophers and scientists, created the scala naturae, the linear ordering of cognition with humans at the top and insects and molluscs at the bottom. This implies, as per many people today’s point of view, a linear notion of evolution, constant improvement on the old with us as the pinnacle. This is not exactly the case; evolution is more of a squat bush with different branches heading off in completely different directions, but still ultimately leading back to a single point.
And so, evolution has not resulted in “higher” or “lower” forms of awareness or intellect, but rather in forms of cognition that fit an environment. This is why many birds, squirrels and other animals that store food have an absolutely incredible memory, not only remembering the hundreds of locations of these caches but also remembering what food items they stored where! This is a feat that would beat 99% of humans.
Ayumu, a chimpanzee, can remember a random series of numbers from 1-9 after only seeing them for 210 milliseconds (0.21 of a second), a far better photographic memory than most humans. Dolphins can work together to fish more effectively, communicating and coordinating with one another, very much like a group of humans would do.
Looking at the brains of different species, we can’t even claim to be at the top in terms of stats. The human brain weighs 1.3 kg, meagre in comparison to the elephant’s 4 kg whilst in the water we have the dolphin’s brain of 1.5 kg and the sperm whale’s brain weighing in at a whopping 8kg! Ok, but then our brain is far more complex, surely? Not the case, the elephant brain contains 257 billion neurons, 3 times as many as ours!
So, if we accept that humans are part of the evolutionary process, that our organs evolved with us, and that we share very similarly functioning organs and parts with animals, then why can’t we share intelligence and consciousness? Intelligence must be considered in the same vein as the more realistic idea of the evolutionary bush, many branches heading off in different (but not necessarily lesser) directions. And consciousness must be considered to pervade every living organism to some degree or other, for who are we to claim that we are the only beings who have this ethereal quality that sparked to life in us and only us at some unknown point in the last 200 000 years?
Many of these examples of intelligence may seem small in comparison to the whopping achievements that human beings can accomplish, but the idea is not to prove that animals are as intelligent as humans, but rather that they are intelligent in different ways, and that we as humans need to start wrapping our heads around the notion that sentience is not a purely human quality. With that, we will begin to respect and cherish those animals that make up the world around us and resume a more harmonious relationship with the world around us.
Reference material: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? – Frans de Waal. Published: 12 April 2016
Reference: https://collections.carlos.emory.edu/objects/1553/collage-for-scala-naturae;jsessionid=5C5A4FB0E76AAFCF5035FEB10E175E3A#
Reference: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/All-Creatures-Great-and-Smart-Research-reveals-3302496.php
Super article, with clearly hours of research. Loved the Aristotle drawing
Thanks Ian, I’m glad you enjoyed!
Hi James, I’m surprised you wrote fish are careless when compared to other animals if you read Frans de Waal book, which I read several years ago. The case of the moray eel and -but here we’re not talking of fish- the octopus are well described. Bees and bumblebees are proved to be intelligent beyond imagination, even if according to me those tests were humanly silly (animals don’t think like us and they don’t perceive the environment like we do). I think that whales and sperm-whales are perhaps even more intelligent than us,but chose to live apart, even coming to our help if we are in need. And that’s what amazes me the most. Anyway , well written and documented ( among others also devil fishes can recognise themselves in the mirror. A method I doubt of, because if you put a mole rat in front of a mirror it will see nothing…)
Hi Francesca, that was just a quote from Einstein about comparing different intellects but we are definitely on the same page when it comes to the different intelligences of various species! I’m glad you enjoyed the blog and really great that you have already read the book, it was fascinating!
Interesting blog, Kyle, and great photos.
As you said, “the idea is not to prove that animals are as intelligent as humans, but rather that they are intelligent in different ways” and who can judge that our Intelligence is better than the one of animals?
At least they do not destroy the world, as the humans do, and that’s certainly a lot better than our way of doing things. Which proves that humans are not that intelligent after all.
Hi Christa. Exactly the point, our supposed “higher intelligence” hasn’t exactly worked out up to now. And hopefully we will fall back in sync with nature soon.
Fascinating discussion! A nice change of subject and intellectually interesting!!! Thank you for researching this!
Thanks Bob and Lucy, it was an interesting thought experiment but the bones of the argument are there!! 5 more months till you come back home!!
Great blog Kyle. Humans and animals have more in common on certain levels than we generally think about. Thanks for the information you provided.
Hi William, thanks for reading. We definitely have more in common than we think!
Thank you for a very interesting article! Unfortunatly a lot of humans have put themselve above the animals. Without ecological balance, we are nothing. We have a lot to learn from animals! They have different super powers than we do. I think being intelligent means that you care about the earth, don’t take more than you need and live with nature. The animals only take what they need, leaving room for those who come after them. Humans cannot directly say that… Clearly there are some species of animals that are smarter than others and some individuals that are smarter than other individuals, just like in humans.
To understand their world we need knowledge. We have researched and learned a lot about them but we still have a lot to learn and understand.
We have to be humble enough to realize that our wonderful animals around us have amazing abilities. It is not who is the best, but that we all have different conditions and abilities.
Thank you for taking up this interesting topic!
Hi Anne, I agree completely. These animals have superpowers and intelligences so far removed from our own as to be almost alien, and because of that we feel we are superior. It will all balance out at some point, I believe we are slowly coming around the idea. Hopefully will do so before it is too late for us as a species! Thanks for reading
Great post Kyle! And I might add plants here as well. I was visiting a redwood tree in Mendocino (Northern California) last week that is understood to be somewhere between 600-800 years old. Now this tree has no way to move or elude anything or anyone that might wish it harm, including humans (for logging purposes). And yet, it has survived to an age that we humans could only aspire to… 6-8 fold!! What is the intelligence that this tree has that has allowed it to survive and thrive for this long. It’s most certainly sentient, and yet, like many animals, we humans typically consider them “unintelligent” without thinking and considering just a little bit deeper. Again, love your post!!
Hi Paul, that is incredible! I really want to make a trip to the states and see, amongst many other things, those giant redwoods. I like the idea of plant intelligence but, to be honest, I haven’t done much research on the topic. I certainly will do so! Thanks for reading
Yes Kyle, this is a fascinating framing of plant survival. What made me think of it was your excellent framing of animal intelligence. As self-referential beings (for better and for worse!), we humans relate to things through our own lenses, and your post really shows the limitations of our perspective when we don’t consider environmental “fit”!
Fantastic blog Kyle and I am sure it took lots of research.
Thank you Valmai!
“humans need to start wrapping our heads around the notion that sentience is not a purely human quality. With that, we will begin to respect and cherish those animals that make up the world around us and resume a more harmonious relationship with the world around us”…YES!!!
Thanks Anita, we’ll get there one day!
You clearly put a lot of thought and research into this article Kyle, and it will surely generate many conversations around the fire as well as comments from the Londolozi blog readers. Humans and animals alike possess degrees of intelligence, yet they are different and cannot be compared as mammals to mammals, etc. Looking forward to reading other’s comments…
Thank you very much Denise, I’m glad you enjoyed it. And that is the exact point, you cannot use the same scale of intelligence across-the-board.
Absolutely agree with you Kyle. However human ego gets in the way of us considering that alternate levels of intelligence are not inferior to our own sadly. When really we have absolutely no idea the entirety of what other beings are capable of.
Exactly Kara! But slowly the mindsets are shifting and (hopefully) one day we may see change in this thinking.
Well done, Kyle, Ron from Gweru
Kyle, What an incredible education you gave us in this blog! Clearly there are different levels of intelligence and you explained it in a way that answers some questions and creates new ones for us!