#animal intelligence

[mindblowingscience]

Elephants call out to each other using individual names that they invent for their fellow pachyderms, a study said on Monday. While dolphins and parrots have been observed addressing each other by mimicking the sound of others from their species, elephants are the first non-human animals known to use names that do not involve imitation, the researchers suggested. For the new study, a team of international researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyse the calls of two wild herds of African savannah elephants in Kenya. The research "not only shows that elephants use specific vocalisations for each individual, but that they recognise and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others," lead study author Michael Pardo said. "This indicates that elephants can determine whether a call was intended for them just by hearing the call, even when out of its original context," the behavioural ecologist at Colorado State University said in a statement.

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[j4v4r10]

New crow ability dropped

[typhlonectes]

Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare

A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

In 2022, researchers at the Bee Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London observed bumblebees doing something remarkable: The diminutive, fuzzy creatures were engaging in activity that could only be described as play. Given small wooden balls, the bees pushed them around and rotated them. The behavior had no obvious connection to mating or survival, nor was it rewarded by the scientists. It was, apparently, just for fun. The study on playful bees is part of a body of research that a group of prominent scholars of animal minds cited today, buttressing a new declaration that extends scientific support for consciousness to a wider suite of animals than has been formally acknowledged before. For decades, there’s been a broad agreement among scientists that animals similar to us — the great apes, for example —  have conscious experience, even if their consciousness differs from our own. In recent years, however, researchers have begun to acknowledge that consciousness may also be widespread among animals that are very different from us, including invertebrates with completely different and far simpler nervous systems...

Read more: https://www.quantamagazine.org/insects-and-other-animals-have-consciousness-experts-declare-20240419

[humblegrub]

honestly, the things that insects are capable of will never cease to amaze me

[acti-veg]

‘While bats can only sense the outer shapes and textures of their targets, dolphins can peer inside theirs. If a dolphin echolocates on you, it will perceive your lungs and your skeleton. It can likely sense shrapnel in war veterans and fetuses in pregnant women. It can pick out the air-filled swim bladders that allow fish, their main prey, to control their buoyancy.

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

-Ed Yong, An Immense World

[wigmund]

Something to tug on your heart strings today - researchers working with Indian Elephants in tea-producing areas of West Bengal have been finding evidence that the elephants are burying their deceased calves in plantation irrigation ditches. A common feature of all of the burials is the calves' legs sticking up into the air out of the grave.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Has anyone ever suggested here an Animorphs AU where, in fact, animals do talk and think and humans are simply unaware of their language, the style Over The Hedge and basically any animated animal movie does?

Cassie is immensely validated and now has to ponder a whole new set of ethical concerns, Ax has a whole horde of forest animal friends and becomes even more estranged from human culture as a result of it (Marco and Tobias do their best to correct this, but they can only do so much), and the animorphs end up recruiting animals to help them in the war - maybe even ones they give morphing tech, like Tobias getting Dude out of his uncle’s place to become another full-time Animorph (or at least be a friend out in the forest, along with Ax)

Crazy thought: Are we sure that isn't the universe the Animorphs are living in already?

In #4, Cassie speaks directly with a whale that understands she isn't a real dolphin and knows what she's looking for. In MM1, she implies whales have their own language.

In #28, Ax notes that human and chimpanzee minds are basically the same, to the point where his friends are all weirded out and almost never use that morph again.

Marco "talks" to his inner gorilla mind several times (#5, MM1, etc.) and says it's almost like a second consciousness joins him in the morph.

In MM2, Marco confidently says that dinosaurs didn't use weapons — Ax points out it was so long ago we don't know that for sure.

Like... do we know for sure that gorillas and dolphins aren't using their own languages in a way we don't detect? Are we sure that dinosaurs didn't construct buildings that just crumbled away in the ~100 million years since?

Crazier thought: Are we sure that's not the universe we're living in already?

Dolphins show signs of metacognition and self-awareness (X)

Gorillas can learn language (X)

Chimpanzees can teach language (X)

Elephants name each other (X)

There's something deeply Animorphs in the idea that the more you learn about an animal, the more you realize is going on under the surface. And a big part of its message is that animal minds are a lot closer to human minds than we humans would like to think.

[blatentmisinformation]

It is a popular myth that jellyfish are stupid, however in captivity they often show problem solving skill equal to that of a 5 year old human child.

[reality-detective]

* * * News Interruption * * *

[artemisblackwing]

Check it out!!! They start fires intentionally to flush out prey.

[mindblowingscience]

Individual innovation is considered one sign of intelligence within species, and elephants are among the animals that researchers have long taken an interest in because of their sophisticated approach to problem solving. A newly published study in the journal Animal Behaviour details findings from a six-month-long study documenting the abilities of individual wild Asian elephants to access food by solving puzzles that unlocked storage boxes. "This is the first research study to show that individual wild elephants have different willingness and abilities to problem solve in order to get food," said the study's lead author Sarah Jacobson, a psychology doctoral candidate studying animal cognition at the CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College. "This is important knowledge, because how animals think and innovate may influence their ability to survive in environments that are rapidly changing due to human presence."

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[anotherhumansthings]

Just lions being uncomplicated (in that moment) and acting more loving than humans 🙃🦁

[typhlonectes]

Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds

Attributing consciousness to animals based on their responses was seen as a cardinal sin. The argument went that projecting human traits, feelings, and behaviours onto animals had no scientific basis and there was no way of testing what goes on in animals’ minds. But if new evidence emerges of animals’ abilities to feel and process what is going on around them, could that mean they are, in fact, conscious? We now know that bees can count, recognise human faces and learn how to use tools...

[eisenvulcanstein]

For the first time, research reveals crows use statistical logic – Ars Technica

[acti-veg]

Prof Chittka’s experiments showed that bees would modify their behaviour following a traumatic incident and seemed to be able to play, rolling small wooden balls, which he says they appeared to enjoy as an activity.

These results have persuaded one of the most influential and respected scientists in animal research to make this strong, stark and contentious statement:

"Given all the evidence that is on the table, it is quite likely that bees are conscious," he said.

It isn't just bees. Many say that it is now time to think again, with the emergence of new evidence they say marks a "sea change" in thinking on the science of animal consciousness.

[davidmahlercomics]

I drew this as a thank you to a family friend for giving us a behind the scenes tour of their elephant park. I won't link to it, I'm against using captive animals for entertainment/tourism. The experience was very conflicting, and has inspired me to work on a longer piece exploring my feelings about animal captivity, and current best practices established by the science community. But first I've just finished an eight page comic abut elephant and human intelligence which I'm excited to share soon. Elephants r kewl. ���