[ETL]

They are rather brilliant. They run and hide when they see me...hiding behind table legs and in dark corners. I have even seen a spider of this genre pretend to be a dust ball to escape detection.

Same with roaches. They actually seem to pretend to be dead at times. They leap and zigzag.

[RoosterRedux]

Amazing isn't it.

I think humans have overestimated their own intelligence and greatly underestimated that of other species. We seem to judge the intelligence of others based on our standards of measurement (i.e. can we teach them tricks or can they invent or use a tool) instead of some objective means.

I have some family members who are lefties and I have serious doubts about their intellect. I call their condition "willful idiocy." It appears to be a choice they make to swim with the cultural current.

I don't think they would last but a few days in a challenging environment like that faced by, say, the squirrels around my house. Those squirrels (and my cats) manipulate the hell our of me. I fall for their tricks 9 times out of 10.