animals are smarter than we think

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spuriousmonkey

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apperently it is an easy choice of we are presented with a banana sliced in two unequal halves. We grab the biggest half.

It is not so easy when the two halves are of equal size. It makes us hesitate.

researchers did the same test with some animals, and to their surprise the animals had the same problems of indecision with the equally halved banana.

We were apparently stupid to think we were terribly smart by being indecisive.
 
I think no animal is as dumb as people seem to think they are.
Many things we consider human would be shared across the entire animal kingdom.
A large percentage of our attributes are just "mammal" and not exclusively human despite popular opinion. Some of them would just be animal and crustaceans would experience them also. Fear for example probably feels pretty much the same no matter what you are. More governed by how much you are required to be afraid than your intelligence or "consciousness".
There would be little things that are exclusively human the same way there are little things exclusively pig.
But we are all related and the basics would be universal throughout the animal kingdom.
I have a large fishtank with many different creatures in it and I am constantly surprised by the allegedly humanesque behaviour they display. Just little things.
When a fight breaks out between 2 clown loaches for example they appear to be experiencing anger mixed with a little fear, excitement and adrenalin, and when its over they are a little awkward around eachother and there is some tension for a while before they eventually become friends again and go back to lying on top of eachother.
Pretty much the same as humans, and these are fish. I think most of what we consider exclusively human was with us a hell of a long time before we actually became human, much of it before there was even such a thing as mammals probably.
Often observing humans around the place I put on my nature documentary goggles and you can really see how we aren't as different as we like to think we are.
 
I have a large fishtank with many different creatures... I think most of what we consider exclusively human was with us a hell of a long time before we actually became human, much of it before there was even such a thing as mammals probably.
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I found this very fascinating, Dr. Lou. I wouldn't expect this of fish. I thought that this behaviour was only limited to mammals.

Maybe fish are more complex than many people believe?

Do you have any more examples like this?
 
I was having this discussion just today with a friend.

I think the only truly unique human trait is our ability to affect and change our surroundings on the scale that we can.

To make so many and such drastic changes to our environment and irrevocably chage the entire world in such a short amount of time is the only thing makes us uniquely human in the Animal kingdom.

Intelligence, reason and subjectivity are being proven more and more to not be unique to humans.

Daphne Island Finches use twigs to "fish" grubs out of holes in tree branches that they can't reach with their beaks, and will exchange the twigs for longer, more or less flexible or thinner twigs that will work better.

Opposable thumbs (even if it were unique to humans, which it isn't) would amount to nothing.
No more significantly unique than a Beaver's tail, a Chow Chow's tongue or a Cow's stomachs.

What makes humans humans?
Our uncanny ability to alter, change, destroy and kill nature on the scale that we can.
And we take full advantage of that ability.
Be proud to be human! :(
 
on a side note

one of the the biggest impacts on the world wasn't really by humans but by oxygen producing plants. The environment changed completely with these abnormal increased oxygen levels.
 
I have heard tales of fish intelligence before... I agree that some fish are very strange that way, the strangest so far it seems to me are the puffer fish they sell in the aquarium.

Little carnivorous things, you feed them ground beef. The thing is, most fish are very fearful and tend to swim away from large objects... puffers sit quite still and watch you intently. I always wonder what they think of us...

Of course, then there was that monkey/fairness experiment, where they discovered that if you trade one monkey's wooden token for a piece of cucumber and the other one for something better, the cucumber monkey gives you the finger and goes and plays with his tire.
 
My dog could always tell when I was going on a trip. He'd hang close, trying to "convince" me to take him with me, no matter how I tried to disguise the fact.
 
People treat their dogs like garbage. Think about it from the dog's point of view.

The whole family goes out the door, except for the dog, out to the savage plains. Out there in the wastes, they pull down a wild pizza and tear out its throat.

They come back bearing their prize. Does the dog get any? Maybe when the others are finished. Mostly the dog gets whacked on the nose if he attempts to take part.

Thus the dog, in its mind, has been relegated to a useless, baggage role, maintained as much as necessary for survival but still somehow a pariah, an outcast, who cannot eat with the others, cannot share the others' food, and is of no help.

When was the last time you took your dog shopping?
 
People treat their dogs like garbage. Think about it from the dog's point of view.

The whole family goes out the door, except for the dog, out to the savage plains. Out there in the wastes, they pull down a wild pizza and tear out its throat.

They come back bearing their prize. Does the dog get any? Maybe when the others are finished. Mostly the dog gets whacked on the nose if he attempts to take part.

Thus the dog, in its mind, has been relegated to a useless, baggage role, maintained as much as necessary for survival but still somehow a pariah, an outcast, who cannot eat with the others, cannot share the others' food, and is of no help.

When was the last time you took your dog shopping?
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You've got to be kidding!?

A domestic dog doesn't have to work or hunt. It doesn't have to spend years at school. It gets to laze about all day.

The most a dog has to worry about is when its master will be serving it its next meal. It also gets a roof over its head.

If aliens came to Earth, they would look down on the humans picking up dog faeces, feeding the dogs, and giving them shelter, and they would think that the DOG is the master, and the HUMAN is the slave.
 
Do humans possess better natural health than animals, sp. those lives in big cities? Health--I mean in terms of quality not quantity.
 
Just a general idea without any medical treatment to both ,suppose. Pls also compare birds.
 
It is ok, but you can follow. I mean Mankind, animals & birds.

Btw, you mentioned 'Animals are smarter......
 
That is not our nature, but the society made it like that. It is a formal aspect not natural. Otherwise we would have not enjoyed by going in to natural nature.
 
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