Recently we had our German Shepherd, who was about halfway to sixteen years old, euthanized. She had some hip problems but still loved to chase after sticks. As the years passed it became more difficult for her to pick up the sticks from the ground (although she still could). She developed a method to make it easier: she pressed down on one end of the stick with her paw, making the other end go up in the air so it would be easier for her to pick it up in her mouth.
This got me to thinking about animal intelligence and whether she arrived at this method through a fluke or if this was some sort of intelligence, almost like using a tool.
Does anyone else have any anecdotes about this sort of thing, or know of studies about animal intelligence (other than the primates)?
(I hope this is the right forum for this sort of thing.)
I understand crows are pretty darned smart. I remember seeing something on the Discovery Channel about animal intelligence, and one of the animals featured was a crow. They would tie a piece of meat to a string, and tie it a branch. They would then introduce a (presumably hungry) crow. With apparently very little ‘thought’, the crow reached down, grabbed the string, and using its beak and one foot, it gradually pulled up the string to the point where it could reach the meat.
Here are some references (not necessarily the TDC one, but others):
Another example I’ve had experience with: You know how, when camping, you’re supposed to put all your food in a “bear bag”, tie a rope to it, and toss it over a limb of a tree? It works fine against bears… but a racoon will actually untie the knot at the ground to drop the bag. That take some thinking, of some sort.
There is an ongoing study of the American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos, at crows.net. It is a fascinating site, and if you have any interesting observations of crows I suggest you send in your data by clicking on “How You Can Help.”
Intelligence is not just problem solving. Paw leverage does not an Einstein make. Things such as laguage are also important. It doesn’t make sense to me how tool using can be the Holy Grail of intelligence.
BTW, many intelligent species, such as crows and humans, are also trainable. So what Mauve Dog saw on the Discovery Channel may have been a simple recreation with pets and actors.
Apes can certainly use tools and I imagine lesser mammals can as well. My grandmother’s rat (errr…I mean Boston Terrier) used to squeeze a tennis ball between her forearm and body until the ball popped up, and then jump up and catch it.
I once read about a “dog intelligence test.”
Take a metal can and a dog treat. Show the dog the treat. Put the treat on the floor. Put the can upside down over the treat, let the dog go and see how long it takes for the dog to knock over the can and get the food.
My smart dog did it in about two seconds. The stupid one took about a minute.
A friend of mine had a crow for a pet when he was a kid. It used to wait for him in the afternoon at the place where the bus dropped him off from school. It also used to steal tools from his father when he was doing car repairs. I’ll tell him about that crow site.
Another of our pets is a Rocky Mountain tortoise we inherited from neighbors who moved to an apartment and couldn’t take her along. She knows her way all around the house. She figured out how to come down stairs without being harmed (she closed the front part of her shell and pushes off with her back legs). In the summer when the air conditioning isn’t running and the inside doors are open, she parks herself in the threshold waiting for someone to open the screen door. Then she makes her escape. She is pretty fast for a turtle. Also, it seems to me that is pretty smart for a reptile.
We used to have a pug. His water dish was near the fridge. One day, my wife and I had the fridge open, pondering what might be good for dinner. Apparently the dog desparately wanted a drink of water, but the door was blocking his access. He slouched down on his belly and extended his paw under the door and pulled his water dish out into the middle of the kitchen floor. After he finished his drink, he looked up indignantly and marched off… We thought that was pretty smart.
I remember seeing a TV program about two years ago on animal intelligence. They has this one bit about a wild squirrel. This guy kept building ever more complex obstacle courses for the squirrel to navigate in order to get to some food. The squirrel always figured it out - and some of these tests would have stumped your average human. They had video footage of this squirrel navigating these obstacle courses - it was amazing! They also talked about an orangutan that had a propensity to escape. One time she wedged a small stick into the lock mechanism while the trainer was in the cage. When the trainer closed the door, the lock failed to engage. Another time she fashioned a tool out of a hairpin and managed to jimmy the lock. There were some other clever tricks she did. All told, I think she managed to escape around 9 times and several of these were caught on tape.
There was an article in Smithsonian magazine a few years ago about the difficulties of measuring animal intelligence. The article talked alot about designing tests for the orangatangs at the National Zoo. One problem is determining what is intelligence. Its not just tool-using. They did decide that its not acting human, but I cannot recall what they did decide it was.
My wife tells stories about Alex, an African gray parrot who has a huge vocabulary, invents words, and is wicked smart. One story: They were testing Alex’s ability to count. They would show it ten things, wait for it to say ‘ten’, take one away, wait for ‘nine’, etc. Alex got fed up with this slow route to a treat. So she(?) started taking the objects away herself.
‘Six’ (throws one away)
‘Five’ (throws one away)
‘Four’ (throws one away)
‘Three’ (throws one away)
‘Two’ (throws one away)
‘One’ (throws one away)
‘Want cookie!’
So, my 2 cents (I just noticed that computer keyboards don’t have a cents key. WTF!)
While intelligent creatures tend to communicate and use tools. Neither language nor use of tools are critical to posessing intelligence - though they may be critical to observing intelligence.