Smart animals Change People's Understanding of Intelligence.

Animal Smarts: Intelligence in the Wild Kingdom
These Icons Have Changed People's Understanding of Intelligence.
By TUAN C. NGUYEN
June 9, 2008

Throughout history, intelligence has often been considered a quality unique to humans, but that conventional wisdom has been shattered over the years as researchcontinues to turn up examples of animals, birds and fish that can develop vocabularies, communicate and even roast marshmallows over a campfire.
smart animals


The belief that intelligence was human-specific was held by a list of influential thinkers, such as Rene Descartes, who argued that unlike people, animals were simply mindless creatures incapable of any complex thought. Even the scientific classification homosapien, which in Latin translates to "wise man," seems to highlight this distinction.

But several recent studies have challenged this long-held view.

Crows, for instance, invent tools. Researchers have observed them using twigs and wires to snatch food from hard-to-reach places. Octopuses have exhibited their own brand of ingenuity by using rocks to build homes in crevices along the ocean floor. The eight-legged eggheads have also been known for mischief, as one researcher learned when he captured one on video sneaking out in the middle of the night to feast on fish, than returning to its tank as if nothing had ever happened.


A few species, however, deserve special mention for being at the head of the class.

Chimpanzees and bonobos have DNA that is 98 percent identical to ours, and the similarities don't end there. They hunt in groups, invent tools and transfer learned behaviors to others.

This tendency to pass on knowledge within a group has led some researchers to suspect that the primates may also possess a capacity for language. In the '60s, a chimp named Washoe surprised many scientists when she began to acquire sign language. It is believed that she eventually learned to use about 250 signs.

Although Washoe died last year, another ape had already begun showing a prodigious knack for gab. Kanzi, a 27-year-old bonobo, started to pick up language as an infant by watching researchers try unsuccessfully to teach his mother how to use keyboard symbols to communicate.

Within a short time, Kanzi has been able to understand thousands of words. Smithsonian magazine reported that during an outing in the forest, Kanzi used the keyboard to ask for matches and marshmallows. With the items in hand, he prepared a campfire and toasted the marshmallows on a stick.