Humans like to think of themselves as the only creatures with intelligence. While members of the animal kingdom may not have all the faculties that we possess, they are nevertheless capable of a startling range of actions and thought processes.
Kanzi loves orange juice, bananas and coffee with milk. Whatever he wants, he generally gets. He has learned more than 200 words and has attained the mental development of a two-and-a-half-year-old child. Kanzi also unddrstands what he is told, even if he hears it on the telephone. It may be surprising to learn that Kanzi is a young bonobo, a pygmy chimpanzee, who lives in captivity at the language research centre of the University of Georgi, in the United States. Here, scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh heads a team of psychologists who are totally dedicated to Kanzi's welfare. These researchers live and work with the animal; if he becomes ill, they will even sleep beside him.
This remarkable primate communicates with his human companions by pointing to geometric symbols on a console, on which each symbol represents a word. Like all monkeys, Kanzi does not have the pwer of speech. But thanks to this system, he can form simple but meaningful sentences by pressing a sequence of two or three words on the console. But does this prove that Kanzi is intelligent? It is difficult to answer this question. While the animal's ability to form sentences is certainly a considerable mental feat. Kanzi is unlikely to progress very much further in this direction. His vocabulary will stay more or less the same, and his capacity for thought will almost certainly never reach the level of a human's.
Clever Energy-saver
Ironically, humans still struggle to find an adequate definition of intelligence. According to experts in this field, the capacity for thought includes such essential aspects as memory, attention, logic, spatial perception and the command of language. It is clear, though, that few animals have such abilities, but some animals do display startling evidence of something resembling intelligence. For example, when the Eqyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) wants to open an ostrich egg - a favoured source of food - it picks up a stone in its beak and drops it onto the egg to crack the thick shell. Another example is the salmon (family Salmonidae), various species of which inhabit the Pacific and Atlantic oceans; after several years in the open sea, the salmon uses its homing instinct to return unerringly to the same river in shich it was born in order to breed. In the West African country of Ivory Coast, the abilities of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are even more impressive; because the nuts that form their preferred diet have an extremely hard shell, these sociable primats use granite stones to crack them open. If they have to carry the stones a short distance, say less than 20 m, the apes will always choose the heavier stones. But over distances of more than 40 m they will choose the lighter stones, so as not to tire themselves out when carrying them.
For the Eqyptian vulture and the salmon, there is certainly no need to speak of genius, for their behaviour stems from ingerited automatism, a series of instinctive actions that are contained in the animal's genetic code. But the attempts of a chimpanzee to conserve its strength show that the animal is obviously making use of its judgement. If we think of the animals's actions in terms of a mathematical formula, where the weight of the stones, the place they are found and the distance they are carried are all variables, it suggests that intelligent thought processes may be at work.
The chimpanzee's impressive abilities are not all that surprising when we consider that - together with gorillas and orang-utans - chimpanzees are our closest living relatives on the evolutionary scale. From their earliest years, these animals learn at a significantly faster rate than human babies. They can learn to eat with a spoon, use a screwdriver and even ride a bicycle. These precocious talents, which are acquired through training, might lead us to believe that the apes could, through education, become civilised beings like ourselves. However, when they reach sexual maturity their natural aggression starts to take over, and adult chimpanzees - particularlay the males - become dangerous to humans.
Acrobatics In The Water
At a research station for marine mammals in Hawaii, two dolphins (family Delphinidae) perform a series of lively acrobatic feats. Their antics are all the more remarkable because these highly intelligent creatures have developed their routine themselves - with a little help from their human trainer. With their heads out of the water, they watch the movements of the trainer, who signals the word 'tandem' by holding up his crossed index fingers. He then throws up his arms in a gesture that is intended to mean 'creative'. Scarcely have the two dolphins registered the trainer's message than they dive to the swim in formation. Then they catapult out of the water in a fountain of spray, and spit a mighty jet of water, before disappearing together into the water.
Many people would say that this is just a well-staged piece of training. It is true that this trick is performed at the command of the trainer, but the details are left to the dolphins. It is they who have choreographed the routine. In other words, the animals have to communicate with each other and coordinate their movements so they can swim in tandem, swallow water and spit it out in unison. The most impressive thing is that these marine mammals do not always react in the same way to the trainer's command. Sometimes they decide to swim backwards or around the pool; it is just as if some form of animal freedom of choice is at work.
An Astonishing Memory
The near perfect co-ordination that the two dolphins demonstrate could be simply a matter of habit, or perhaps one animal is imitating the ther perfectly. Behaviur patterns like these present scientists with a genuine riddle, for if we assume intelligence to be closely related to the capacity to grasp a given situation, then these dolphins must be extremely talented.
Even in the wild, dolphins are noted for amazing feats. For example, fishermen came across a dolphin, whom they nicknamed Pecy, for off the coast of Cornwall, in southwestern England. Like many dolphins, Percy enjoyed the company of humans and liked to follow in the wake of fishing boats or approach divers. He was particularlay fond of one diver, and would spend hours swimming alongside him. Percy also liked to play with the fishermen's lines.
Although perhaps less spectacular, the behaviour of other animals is often much more subtle than it first appears. One example is the rooster and his hens. An American scientist who has specialised in the study of thesocial behaviour of chickens has observed that a rooster in a chickens has observed that a rooster in a chicken coop will not only announce to the hens with his clucking that there is something to eat, but by varying his calls he will offer comments on how interesting the foods is. In order to test this hypotheses, the scientist fed his chickens a daily diet of worms, peas and peanuts. When the rooster saw the first two of these foods, he called to the hens with short, quick clucks, and they immediately came running. But if the chickens were only fiven peanuts, the rooster let out a slow cluck of disappointment, and only half of the hens reacted at all.
Collective Intelligence
Insects have a fairly simple nervous system, but in groups they can achieve miracles. Many scientists suggest that insects can even grasp abstract and complex concepts, such as time. For example, researchers in the French city of Toulouse have tought ants to take food only at certain times and in certain places. Three times a day, the small colony comes out of its nest and picks up bread crumbs placed at three precise locations.
Equally impressive are the feats of honeybees, who build elaborate networks of cells for breeding and food storage. The material used to build the cells is produced from their own bodies. The complex division of roles in a beehive even extends to so-called fanner bees, whose job is to make sure that the hive does not overheat.
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