#we’re the most phenotypically diverse group of ppl

[rottenlittlefink]

Liberals on tumblr in 2016 when one would have a nuanced life experience that they could not project their own onto & categorize into rigid boxes based on their own life experiences:

[f-nodragonart]

Are predators in general smarter than prey, or is it the opposite? And why would that be?

so first off, intelligence is a tricky subject to even identify, much less to quantify or grade on a hierarchy. we humans are HEAVILY biased in what kinds of intelligence we consider valid, not to even MENTION more specific cultural biases therein. we humans tend to base a lot of our intelligence testing on social skills and abstract thinking, b/c we’re a social species that has the tools/language to properly communicate the abstractions that float through our heads. not every animal (predator OR prey) is social, nor do many of them have the tools at their disposal to communicate abstract thoughts. and that’s even IF they have abstract thoughts in the first place, which they certainly *might* (plenty of species have been shown to grasp abstractions within human testing environments), but they wouldn’t always necessarily NEED to understand abstractions for their survival, depending on the abstractions in question. cognitive maps are an example of an abstraction that would be practical for, say, a traveling animal to develop and use, but this isn’t always the case for certain abstract intelligence tests

thus, things like sociality and more anthropomorphic abstract reasoning simply can’t be parameters of intelligence for non-social animals that may have little reason to think abstractly in the ways we do. hell, intelligence shouldn’t even *be* graded/compared in the first place, due to this complexity. and I’m certainly not the first to make this argument– human IQ testing is p wack and based on a lot of ableist and racist eugenic ideals, for example, which truly only reveal the test’s contextual shortcomings 

when questioning the intelligence of a nonhuman animal, we HAVE to be incredibly careful to take the animal’s specific circumstances into account and frame the test around what THEY may be expected to naturally do based on their abilities and past behavior– not what we’d expect a HUMAN to do in a similar situation. the ways in which animals may respond to certain stimuli/situations may seem confusing or stupid to us, but in-context may make perfect sense given their natural habitats, circumstances that animal has had to deal with in the past, the range of their sensory abilities, etc.

and even beyond all that, the pred/prey boundary in general is kinda false and grey, which further complicates this question. life is not as simple as slotting all animal species into two preset boxes, and most animals can be both predator and prey (and scavenger) depending on the situation and how we decide to analyze their life and behavior. not to mention that vague pred/prey groupings encompass VASTLY different clades of animals with different neurological setups from one another, from insects to fish to mammals. while humans tend to think of mammals as the most intelligent clade b/c we ourselves are mammals, that’s just a false assumption and I won’t be making that silly distinction here

but if we rly want to try comparing animal intelligence, then, “intelligence is measured in animals by their ability to learn from situations they are exposed to. Learning stems from what is called phenotypic plasticity, which allows for short-term and long-term changes in behavior to permit individuals to adapt to changing situations or environments.” (x) thus, some of the most informative tests of ‘intelligence’ in nonhuman animals are those that study adaptability to new situations. every organism has some level of adaptability b/c that’s just life and evolution, so seeing how adaptable an animal is to new/tricky problems can reveal interesting insights into their capacity for learning and change

now I must reiterate– there does NOT seem to be much solid evidence for either preds or prey being more or less intelligent due to the complexities I detailed above. BUT I will throw some food for thought your way– just some of my armchair theorizing. and for the sake of simplifying my point for this, you can assume that the predators I’m talking abt are exclusively apex, obligate predators, and the prey are obligate herbivores, giving us a more simplistic hard-line of comparison

so, generally speaking, safety+time+energy are the big things an animal has to worry abt in the most basic bare-bones of survival. an animal that has guaranteed safety and/or free time/energy can use that extra time/energy to, say, explore a new situation out of pure curiosity, develop non-essential skills, or to simply play. animals that don’t have this guarantee of safety+time+energy that encounter a novel situation are more likely to flee or fight out of fear for theirconstantly-threatened safety and scant energy stores. while this isn’t specifically a sign of intelligence, it is an interesting development that’s worth noting

that in mind, many apex predators have more safety since they’re prolly not being hunted by anybody, so they don’t have to waste time/energy being vigilant for their lives. additionally, a lot of top predators like lions or wolves can usually gorge on a large meal once and can go at least a few days or longer before the energy from that meal is eaten up and they HAVE to hunt again. and I’ve also heard that it generally takes longer to digest protein-rich food? so preds just need to rest more to digest anyways. a lot of prey, on the other hand, must always be on guard for preds, and have to constantly keep eating b/c their chosen plant matter (particularly leaves/grass for grazers) doesn’t have as high energy levels per unit

though this is of course being very generous in assuming that the preds in question have a decent hunting success rate and are bringing down large kills– hunters still have to dedicate time/energy to finding/capturing food, and there are plenty of preds that live on the edge of starvation. and on the flipside, there are plenty of prey species that DO lead relatively safe/lax lifestyles just b/c they’re so goddamn huge that they rarely have to worry abt being hunted (like elephants), or they may live in large groups where only a few individuals need to keep watch for the group’s safety, thus they have free time/energy to play/explore

tho there’s also an argument to be made that adversity– rather than safety– actively pushes the development of new skills. after all, tools aren’t invented unless there’s a need for them, and the needs of survival can lead to some incredible solutions to tough situations. so, one could argue that the starving predators or fear-fueled prey are the most intelligent, as they are living on the razor’s edge of survival, yet they’re still going using whatever tricks they can

though none of this rly answers whether preds or prey are smarter– just complicates that question further with more examples of diverse lifestyles among the two groups. this isn’t rly the cut-and-dry question that a lot of ppl seem to think it is, sorry to say. but that’s just how ethology is– it’s all abt context and educated assumptions

-Mod Spiral