I visited Maryland yesterday in so many ways. In all of that, I mentioned Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, and hence, the Baltimore Ravens.
It only seems right that I should carry over with today’s blog, that glorious raven. I know. I’ve written about them before. But this time will be different, I promise. Sure, most of you know they are one of my favorite animals. I also love an octopus, a turtle, an elephant, and an opossum. Of course, dogs. But are dogs still considered animals?
Here is the thing about crows. They are smarter than we realize. It has long, long, long been my contention that science is trying to study animals with the wrong approach. Animal intelligence and communication have always been analyzed according to human standards — how we think and speak. But they operate at a completely different level than we do. Higher, I think. They have learned to communicate without words or sounds. How they do it, I don’t know. If that were the case, I’d be making the big dollars in my lab coat.
But anyone who has spent any time observing ANY species can see the non-verbal interactions taking place. Our dogs do it all the time. We watch the deer behave in this manner. And on and on.
Back to the crows for a moment. I recently read a fascinating paper published last year in Science Magazine. A team of scientists from the University of Tübingen in Germany published it. So, their newest discoveries showed that crows are even more impressive than we ever knew before. In fact, the evidence suggests that they are self-aware and, in an important sense, conscious.
The corvid family of birds, which includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies, are known to use tools. They also remember the faces of people they like or don’t like. They’ve been filmed dropping nuts on the road so that passing cars will crack them open.
The guy writing the article told a personal story. While at a train station once, he watched a pair of crows team up at a water fountain. While one pushed the button with its beak, the other drank from the water that started to flow. That’s not only nifty, it is brilliant.
But here is the point of the thing, which matches my point. Without going into the entire thing, the scientists led many experiments that showed that the birds were actively evaluating how to solve a particular problem they were confronted with. In effect, they were thinking it over. This ability to consciously assess a problem is associated with the cerebral cortex in the brains of humans. But birds have no cerebral cortex. They found that in crows, thinking occurs in the pallium—the layers of gray and white matter covering the upper surface of the cerebrum in vertebrates.
The studies support the notion that the bird brain can, in principle, support the development of higher intelligence.
In the past, they haven’t thought this was possible because of the “size” of their brains. But scientists — I’ll say it again — have been looking at things the wrong way. They’ve been comparing animal brains to human brains. Big mistake. Finally, they are starting to scratch the surface of things and take a look at “animal thinking” differently.
Consider these animals:
Chimpanzees are one of the smartest animals on Earth. They are capable of using tools, solving problems, and communicating with others.
Dolphins give one another names. They are also known for their high levels of communication and social interaction. They have assisted humans in distress.
And how about our big gray friends? Elephants are extremely emotional animals. They have been known to grieve for their dead, and they form strong bonds with other members of their herd. In addition, they are very protective of their young and will do anything to keep them safe.
If you head over to YouTube and explore the intelligence of octopuses, you’ll be amazed there too. An octopus can problem-solve, unlike any other creature.
So. Are humans truly supremely intelligent? Well, humans may have figured out weaponry, which has given us an “advantage” over the “control” of the animal kingdom. But intelligence is relative, I think.
Hopefully, we will be forgiven for all of our wrong-doings where the animals are concerned. And at the same time, bring our own thinking to new levels.
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“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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“Humans beings always do the most intelligent thing…after they’ve tried every stupid alternative and none of them have worked”
― Richard Buckminster Fuller
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“It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.”
― George R.R. Martin
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Smarter than we know. Those feathers are.
