New Miscellany 2: Animal intelligence (General)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 17:58 (10 days ago) @ dhw

Animal intelligence: the opossum

DAVID: Your opossum story would require some degree of repetition of observation to make the point. A single observation isn't enough.

dhw: How the heck do you know?

DAVID: From my own learning experiences. Are you all pure theory?

DAVID: It is still clear each individual ant knows his role to play as part of a colonies reactions.

dhw: Yes, indeed, just as each individual human being knows his role to play in whatever job he is doing. Now please explain: when ants (and other creatures) solve new problems designed to test their intelligence, how does that prove they are not intelligent?

Intelligent action from instinct does not mean active intelligence. The individual ant is an automaton.

DAVID: See new intelligence in animal entry.

Prairie dogs and curlews

QUOTES: They bark to alert neighbors to the presence of predators, with separate calls for dangers coming by land or by air.

dhw: To protect themselves, the curlews eavesdrop on the alarms coming from prairie dog colonies…

Previous research has shown birds frequently eavesdrop on other bird species to glean information about potential food sources or approaching danger…

In this crouched position, the birds “rely on the incredible camouflage of their feathers to become essentially invisible on the Plains,” Dreelin said.

DAVID: This is a careful learned behavior which has gotten to be instinctual. We are slowly learning how smart bird brains really are.

dhw: You can’t learn anything if you don’t have some form of intelligence. And yes, if you have learned that the cry “There are predators on the way!” means that there are predators on the way, you will instinctively grasp the fact that you are in danger and need to find a way to avoid becoming the prey. You, David, are slowly learning how smart birds and dogs and plants and octopuses etc. can be, but you still refuse to believe that ants and the opossum can also be intelligent. Why? Thank you for all these examples confirming animal intelligence.

Of course they have intelligence.