Animal Intelligence
People ask me all the time if animals can be born retarded. This question usually comes from an owner trying to teach a pet to do, (or not do), something. The lesson doesn’t take, and the conclusion is made that the pet is “retarded”. But this is probably not the case. Animals vary in intelligence levels within individuals, breeds, and species.
I read an article last week on an experiment to see whether elephants could recognize themselves in a mirror. Who hasn’t held their dog or cat in front of a mirror only to have it viscously attack the image as an identical intruder? Well, it turns out, elephants do realize that the elephant in the reflection is them and them alone. But would an elephant jump into a pool, grab your clothes and pull you to safety if you were in trouble? Is that truly a measurement of intelligence?
If your cat plays fetch with you, is it intelligent? If your retriever doesn’t, is it stupid? Even the most simple of animals can be trained, but trainablitily is only one aspect of intelligence. Reasoning, planning, and unprompted solutions to problems are also markers of an intelligent animal. I also read an article about Seeing Eye dogs flunking out of their program only to excel in sniffer programs (dogs trained to detect items such as drugs, CD’s and money). It is really only a matter of finding the motivation for each animal and using it to obtain the behavior you would like. Again, just good training.
Mental retardation in animals probably isn’t similar to the condition described in humans. If it is too affected to eat, drink and avoid pain it will not live long in the animal world. Now with that being said, I have known some very stupid animals. On the other hand, I have known some very stubborn animals–they knew what was expected of them and they just refused to do it. And maybe that makes them the most intelligent of them all!
September 4th, 2007 at 8:42 am
In that case Buster must be the smartest dog of them all cause I’ve never known a person let alone a dog who is as stubborn as he is!