Think humans are way smarter than other animals? Not so fast, Einstein!

[BainsBane]

Does your pet open the refrigerator door or hide its medicine? Now there is a scientific study that shows that animals are just as smart as human, only in different ways.

"For millennia, all kinds of authorities -- from religion to eminent scholars -- have been repeating the same idea ad nauseam, that humans are exceptional by virtue that they are the smartest in the animal kingdom," the book's co-author Dr. Arthur Saniotis, a visiting research fellow with the university's School of Medical Sciences, said in a written statement. "However, science tells us that animals can have cognitive faculties that are superior to human beings."

Not to mention, ongoing research on intelligence and primate brain evolution backs the idea that humans aren't the cleverest creatures on Earth, co-author Dr. Maciej Henneberg, a professor also at the School of Medical Sciences, told The Huffington Post in an email.

The researchers said the belief in the superiority of that human intelligence can be traced back around 10,000 years to the Agricultural Revolution, when humans began domesticating animals. The idea was reinforced with the advent of organized religion, which emphasized human beings' superiority over other creatures.

"The belief of human cognitive superiority became entrenched in human philosophy and sciences," Saniotis said in the statement. "Even Aristotle, probably the most influential of all thinkers, argued that humans were superior to other animals due to our exclusive ability to reason."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/human-intelligence-animals_n_4400395.html

[Cleita]

1. If my cat had thumbs he would be a bigger terrorist than he already is.

He knows how to open doors and cabinets. He just can't do it because he doesn't have hands.

[BainsBane]

2. terrorist is a good way to describe cats

Kittens in particular. My theory is nature made them the cutest creatures on earth to avoid their extinction. Why else would anyone tolerate them? Cats definitely get better with age.

As for dogs, their absence of thumbs gives me my primary purpose in life: Official door opener and closer.

[catbyte]

7. Not all of us feel thatway! I am a bit sad when my kittens grow up.

[ZombieHorde]

3. Cat lovers make cats sound like terrible creatures.

Just terrible. Almost everything I read about cats is just frustrating and awful.

[Cleita]

4. My poor fella has been in the vets being treated for pancreatitis the last four days.

One of the technicians called me up to tell me what a good boy he's been and he hasn't had one of his bi-polar episodes this time where he tries to kill her when she pills him. OMG! I never thought of his crazy attack fits as being bi-polar, but he is a handful when he's in that zone.

[Trailrider1951]

9. Cleita, I'm sorry that your Tomkitty is sick

Mine is getting over a bout with a URI that I thought would finish him off. His doc gave me some rather large pills to give him, and there was no way this cat would hold still for the dry pill down the throat thing. So I (with the vet's OK) pulverized that pill between a couple of sheets of aluminum foil with a tack hammer and added it to about 1/3 can of Fancy Feast, flaked fish and shrimp. Mix well. He gobbled it up and begged for more. There was no muss, no fuss, and Harry got much better within a few days. I hope your kitty gets better, and will tolerate any meds the vet gives him.

[Cleita]

10. Thanks. They have a new method now and he seems okay with it.

They put the medication in a gel and you apply it inside his ear with one hand while the other hand gives him a treat. It works! He just needed IVs which I couldn't give him. They tell me he will come home tomorrow. Glad your Harry is on the mend as well.

[Trailrider1951]

13. Wow, meds in a gel, now that's convenient!

Much easier than pills!

[BainsBane]

5. no, they vary a lot

Kittens are hell on wheels, but some cats are quite mellow.

I have long held that cats are the most highly evolved species on the planet. They have convinced an entire species to feed and care for them while expecting no work in return.

[ZombieHorde]

6. They haven't convinced an entire species. nt

[Cleita]

17. Yes, Robin Williams said dogs have family. Cats have staff.

[TeeYiYi]

11. Well,...you should see what I read about zombies. ..nt

TYY

[ZombieHorde]

12. Zombies aren't pets.

Except perhaps in the movie Fido.

[TeeYiYi]

14. They're not?...

Don't tell these guys:




TYY

[ZombieHorde]

16. Ha! You proved me wrong. I bet they're not house broken though. nt

[BainsBane]

19. on the plus side

Zombie cats aren't picky eaters.

[ZombieHorde]

22. They'll eat all your live cats. nt

[TeeYiYi]

24. Of course...and why not?...

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

25. Probably not...but they're kinda' cute...

TYY

[ZombieHorde]

29. Funny. nt

[LWolf]

18. My cat opens both cabinet doors and drawers.

Nothing is safe, and you never know when she'll spring out of a cabinet at your feet as you walk by. I often arrive home to find items that WERE in drawers scattered around the room.

I'm in the long process of installing child-safety latches onto every damned cabinet door and drawer in the place.

[Cleita]

23. Oh my that's funny. It seems she has figured out how to do it

without thumbs. She seems like quite the personality.

[LWolf]

37. That's one way of putting it, lol.

When I brought her home, a tiny scrap of a thing that fit in one palm, the last of a litter rescued from a dead feral mom, I gave her a cute little name. Within a few months, an epithet was added to the beginning of that name, so that it better fits her. She's the highest energy, fiercest, most intense cat I've ever had, and I've had many cats over the course of my life.

[dorkzilla]

32. We had to padlock our refrigerator door because the dog could open it!

My ex-husband has the videos of him doing it or else I'd post it. Dog was hellueasy to train because he was so food-centric, but the other side of the coin was the fridge trick.

Very happy my current doggies and their feline overlords haven't figured that out.

[LWolf]

38. .

That video would go viral.

[dorkzilla]

40. I really should tell him to post it on YouTube

But since its my idea he probably won't!

[Beacool]

28. You made me laugh out loud.

[marmar]

8. I watched two people with cellphones wander right out into the street in front of cars today.....

...... and I watched a dog look both ways cautiously before crossing. ...... Sometimes I wonder too.

[Cleita]

20. I've seen that behavior with cats, deer and even squirrels.

Armadillos never got the message though.

[Vashta Nerada]

31. That's an everyday occurrence here on campus.

Many of the young kids will cross the street glued to their cell phones, not paying any attention to potential cars coming.

It's a miracle that they all survive.

[NuclearDem]

15. I really don't like the "*-er than" comparisons.

Different forms of life evolved and continue to evolve to better survive their particular environment. Every life form is going to be better or worse at something than another.

BECAUSE THIS IS DU AND I'LL START AN ARGUMENT OVER ANYTHING

[BainsBane]

21. That actually is the argument of the researchers

That there are different kinds of intelligence and that humans value reasoning, but many other forms of intelligence are every bit as useful to survival, which is the goal for every species.

Whales and dolphins have language, of course, and even individual names, according to the article.

[Nye Bevan]

26. My dog is not that smart.

I beat him in Scrabble about 75% of the time.

[BainsBane]

27. Who goes to work to buy the dog food?

Hmmm? That should tell you something.

[rrneck]

30. One way to look at it might be that

the success of the human species will be told as the growth - and collapse - of a too virulent virus or as a species that was able to adapt to the changes that we ourselves have wrought.

[another_liberal]

33. We are destroying the natural World and our future along with it.

I was taught that, "Intelligence is the ability to survive."

If that is true, we aren't smarter than anything else.

[Kablooie]

34. It all depends on what your interpretation of 'intelligence' is.

I'm sure an animal would consider much of what we do that has no bearing on their own life as useless nonsense.
It all relates to context.

[BainsBane]

35. That's essentially what the study shows

That we as humans have valued reason above all other kinds of intelligence, but there are others at which animals are at least as strong.

[BainsBane]

36. Case in point

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. This is complete bullshit

We are here, typing an argument about this, when our argument is typical evidence for humans being smarter than any other animal. We can understand the argument. That is what 'intelligence' is - understanding. They talk about gibbons having 20 different sounds to communicate with. We have more than 20 sounds (consonant and vowel sounds) in a typical language, and we can combine them to have thousands of words, and effectively unlimited sentences.

This did not start with the emergence of agriculture, either. Humans were organising complex hunts, controlling fire, and producing art long before that. They can come up with examples of some species doing one thing well - often just at the level a toddler can do something, sometimes better than that - but humans are good at all kinds of things involving intelligence.

This is just click bait from the University of Adelaide, and the Huffington Post. But that, again, shows their intelligence - they've worked out that people will click on, and spread, counter-intuitive claims. Especially if it gives people a chance to boast how smart their cat is.

[tritsofme]

41. Animals are good at being animals. Even better than humans.

Good study.