Australian research shows elephants, dogs, birds, fish and other animals have mental abilities that surpass those of chimps and other primates

[Guest guest]

>Professor Rogers says Italian researchers have shown chickens taught

>to find food in the middle of a square area can then locate the

>middle of any space such as a circle or triangle.

>

>They can also recognise a shape when it has been split into two

>halves, say, by a black bar. When children can do this it is hailed

>as a milestone of cognitive development, she says. " But chicks can

>do it from the word go. "

>

>Their dumb reputation is undeserved. " It's a political issue. The

>animals we eat most are the ones we tend to devalue most, " she says.

 

 

 

Sydney Morning Herald February 21, 2004

 

It's time you primates quit making a monkey out of me

 

Science may have been unduly kind to the apes. Deborah Smith reports on

the new-found respect for the brain power of other animals.

 

So you think that apes are at the top of the tree when it comes to

intelligence - apart from us, of course? Think again, is the advice of two

of Australia's leading primate experts.

 

New research shows elephants, dogs, birds, fish and other animals have

mental abilities, such as tool use or hunting skills, that surpass those of

our closest hairy relatives, say Professors Lesley Rogers and Gisela Kaplan

of the University of New England.

 

Even the much maligned chicken we enjoy for dinner is no dummy, they say. It

turns out to be a whizz at abstract concepts like finding the centre of

different geometric shapes.

 

Professors Rogers and Kaplan, who work with orangutans and marmosets, are

well aware that close contact with non-human primates can have a profound

effect on people. A young orangutan that Professor Kaplan studied in Borneo

adopted her as mother. " The intensity of that relationship was

overwhelming, " she recalls.

 

This has made them question how much the emotional bonds between scientists

and their subjects has coloured past research in the apes favour.

 

While they believe it was a political necessity that the special qualities

of apes were emphasised during the 1960s and 1970s to bring about their

protection, it's time for some healthy scepticism about their supposed

superiority and unique capabilities.

 

" We're not arguing primates shouldn't be given special treatment, " says

Professor Rogers. " But we are . . . aware of the risks of choosing to work

on one species instead of choosing a problem and then testing it on a range

of species. "

 

As a start, the professors have drawn together the latest evidence from

world experts in a new scientific book they have edited, Comparative

Vertebrate Cognition. Are Primates Superior to Non-Primates? (Kluwer

Academic).

 

It is full of surprises. Fish may not be geniuses. But guppies, it turns

out, can learn quickly, by following the ones that know the route to food in

a maze. If the research had been on primates it would probably have been

interpreted as really clever behaviour, Professor Rogers notes.

 

Elephants not only have excellent memories, they are like chimps in

realising that some humans know more than others.

 

In experiments where people point out where a treat is hidden, the elephants

are quick to twig, like primates, that a person who watched the treat being

secreted away is a more reliable guide than someone, say, with a bucket on

their head, who saw nothing.

 

Chimps are also renowned for following the gaze of humans, in the same way

that we all tend to look up at the sky when someone else does. This is

regarded as a sign of higher cognition, because the animal realises the

human is thinking about something different to them, says Professor Rogers.

" But domestic dogs are even better at it than chimps. "

 

Dogs may also be better hunters than chimps, says Professor Kaplan. Wild

dogs can set up ambushes, with one revealing itself to the prey so it will

move in the direction of two hidden members of the pack. " Only in

chimpanzees has it been interpreted as a mark of higher intelligence, " says

Professor Kaplan.

 

Although the brains of birds are relatively small, it is now known they can

grow large numbers of new nerve cells when needed, for example, during

singing season.

 

Crows in New Caledonia have been found not only to cut different kinds of

tools from leaves to probe for insects in tree trunks, but they also store

them for future use. " This definitely rivals tool use in chimps, " says

Professor Rogers.

 

The crows are also the only other species apart from humans to display left

or right " handedness " in their manipulatory techniques, New Zealand

researchers led by Dr Gavin Hunt have discovered.

 

In Japan, carrion crows cleverly wait until the traffic lights change, then

dash out and place their walnuts on the road for cars to crack open.

 

Professor Kaplan studies Australian magpies and has identified at least 12

different alarm calls. Future research is aimed at determining whether, as

she suspects, magpies are communicating at the level of saying, " Watch out,

here comes an eagle " , or " Watch out, here comes a ground predator " .

 

Professor Rogers says Italian researchers have shown chickens taught

to find food in the middle of a square area can then locate the

middle of any space such as a circle or triangle.

 

They can also recognise a shape when it has been split into two

halves, say, by a black bar. When children can do this it is hailed

as a milestone of cognitive development, she says. " But chicks can do

it from the word go. "

 

Their dumb reputation is undeserved. " It's a political issue. The

animals we eat most are the ones we tend to devalue most, " she says.

 

The book does not answer whether apes are intellectually superior, the

editors write. " Researchers are only at the beginning of the search. It is

important, however, to continue asking this question. "

 

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