Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: betty boop
“...distinctively human intelligence..”

It is difficult to argue that any creature’s intellectual capacity remotely approaches that of human beings. However, many animals engage in activities that indicate a level of intelligence far beyond what is normally accepted.

For example, pigeons were taught to stand on a box and peck at a suspended banana. These pigeons were also taught to push boxes. When the pigeons were faced with a situation where the box wasn’t situated below the suspended banana, the pigeons pushed the boxes so that they were below the bananas and were then able to peck them.

In another study, crows were given wire hooks which they used to pull food from narrow-necked containers (they reasoned this use on their own). When given a straight piece of wire, the crows bent them into hooks and then pulled the food from the containers.

Octopi have been known to unscrew jar lids in order to retrieve food and to move between aquaria (crawl out, walk across floor, crawl in, eat available fish, and return “home”).

These examples illustrate a profound level of thought and reasoning that humans have long believed impossible.

313 posted on 07/15/2007 10:39:08 AM PDT by stormer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 306 | View Replies ]


To: stormer; Alamo-Girl; hosepipe; narby; tacticalogic
These examples illustrate a profound level of thought and reasoning that humans have long believed impossible.

I'm delighted to accept your evidence here, Stormer. But the fact remains there is no animal of which we are aware that engages in abstract reasoning about nonphenomenal aspects of reality. That seems to be a distinctively human characteristic.

317 posted on 07/15/2007 10:44:31 AM PDT by betty boop ("Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." -- A. Einstein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 313 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson