I don’t have the specific site handy…but Capstick (a hunter who worked in Africa who’s books were popular in the 70’s) stopped taking jobs at culling excess Elephant populations because of an episode that went something like this (from memory):
He shot an elephant and the rest of the herd went ballistic. They all ran after him making tons of noise. He managed to hide in some tall grass and the elephants were looking for him. They didn’t find him but one older elephant trumpeted and all the others went to her. He said he peeked up and saw the elephants herded around each other like a (American) football huddle. They then broke the huddle went out and spaced themselves equally apart in the grass moving forward…basically forming a skirmish line/search line looking for him.
I can’t remember how he got out of it…but he said there was intelligence and planning going on…and so then refused to kill elephants ever again.
Anyone familiar with dogs & cats knows that these critters are capable of developing a measure of wisdom, empathy and priority. Granted, they are unusual animals and feel almost like a different sort of creature than an ordinary pet. For each cat I’ve known to be this way (3 total) I’ve known easily 2 dozen others that were just cats. Some were pretty old too, but they remaind simply old cats.
I haven’t spent much time among cetaceans or oliphaunts, but I understand young elephants need to be properly socialized by other elephants or else they grow up like my stepson’s father.
I’d really like to know who on the planet can make the distinction between an Asian elephant and an African elephant? (I referring strictly in the sense of being sapient or not.)
African elephants aren’t trainable. Indiian are. In my mind, that’s an (imperfect) measure of intelligence.
Wolves and dogs are nearly the same species too, but both of those are up there.
I voted chimps and bonobos.
Also bottlenose dolphins and dogs. We had two dogs growing up - the younger could sometimes tell that the older was looking for her favorite ball, and the younger would go get it and drop it before the older (ability to take another’s POV).
Whew. I took the OP’s advice and voted for all the critters on the list and not the last 2 choices.
I used to accept the common notion that only animals with large brains and folds in the brain surface were sapient. Now I’m tending towards my own theory that it’s the existence of brain cells that gives sapience, not the number or arrangement of brain cells.
