Octopuses work together with fish to hunt—and the way they share decisions is surprisingly complex

For years, during my commute through Franconia Notch, NH, a snowy owl would meet me just north of the notch or in it and fly a few feet in front of and above my car, sometimes for over 5 miles.

This only happened when I was early on the way to work and could drive at 30-40 MPH at 10PM to 2AM depending on when I had to commute.

We have had a blue heron follow us for over 10 miles when canoeing on the Connecticut River and loons swimming back and forth under our canoe on lakes and ponds in 3-4 foot deep water.

If you go early on the snowmobile trails you will often see more animal tracks than snowmobile tracks. It is their highway at night.

Killer whales used to team up with human whale hunters.

They would corral up a whale and the human hunters would spear it and haul it to a beach. The killer whales would run off any sharks that tried to sample the goods and upon success, the humans would cut off the whale’s tongue and give it to the Killer whales (it was their favorite part of a whale).

“Who decides what they are going to do, where and when? Are the different players “democratic,” in that they come to some form of compromise, or does one species take the lead and the other simply follows (that is, they are “despotic”)?”

What kind of bullshite political descriptions are these? Compromise is not a synonym of “democratic” and “despotic” is not a synonym of leading, following or shared agreement.

.but I’ve long felt our animal friends are much smarter than most give them credit for.

We are made up of cells with a nucleus. Every cell is intelligent. The brain is more of a data processing and storage facility. Our intelligence is really comprised of the collective intelligence of each cell.

Every single creature on our planet is made up of the same intelligent cells. In the octopus, for example, each tentacle of the octopus is individually intelligent (has a brain). An octopus can solve a very complex puzzle (like a maze for it to negotiate) very quickly.

There are flying insects that live in holes in the sand out in the desert. When they leave their hole, they push sand into the opening. They take off and fly for miles foraging for food. They can come back over miles of shifting sand which is indistinguishable and fly right to their nest and dig out the sand particles and enter. There is no way a human could accomplish the same.

As a matter of fact, most creatures are more intelligent in terms of survival abilities, and at a much younger age. than humans.

Every single life form on Earth is intelligent. Not just humans, not just animals, even plants are intelligent. And some plants are more than they seem. There are plants that live on the ocean floor. When they need to, they pull up their roots and swim off like a snake, to the extent of actually resembling a snake.

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