Category: Animal minds

So dogs learned to detect a message using fingers, which they don’t have, but chimps, which have fingers, didn’t learn to detect the message? Jane Goodall, check YOUR messages. more

Attributing human thoughts/characteristics to insects feels especially odd considering that the soldier bee does not know that it will die, nor does the colony, … more

“…their performance is indistinguishable from that displayed by monkeys.” more

“Monkeys do feel the distress of others but have no good grasp of what’s going on with them.” more

“Smarter animals do not so much abstract a solution to a problem as take available hints from their environment.” more

The fact is, if you pay attention to any animals long enough they will sometimes act in ways you don’t expect. more

One wonders what the judgment will be on the many dumpster rats who didn’t show empathy when last noticed? Are they morally culpable? more

Compare this with recent claims that orangutans have culture. The reason orangutans don‘t have culture is precisely stuff like this. more

There is probably about as much difference between the behaviour of urban and rural squirrels, that offspring learn from their dams, but you wouldn’t get away with calling it culture. more

Even if they are not at risk. more

The modellers seem to overlook the fact that intelligence is mostly required for the pack’s day-to-day life together. more

People experience the world through five senses but sharks, paddlefishes and certain other aquatic vertebrates have a sixth sense. more