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Animal Intelligence Quotes

Browse 27 quotes about Animal Intelligence.

Animal Intelligence Quotes

“What confounds this dilemma further is that individual animals within a species have varying cognitive abilities. To quote the Yosemite National Park ranger who, when asked why it was proving so hard to make a garbage bin that bears couldn’t break into, said, “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”

HumourAnimal Intelligence
Book:How to Speak Whale: The Power and Wonder of Listening to Animals
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“If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what until now has been described as "human rights"? How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder? What further properties must he show before religious missionaries must consider him worthy of attempts at conversion?”

Animal RightsAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“I would expect a significant development and elaboration of language in only a few generations if all the chimps unable to communicate were to die or fail to reproduce. Basic English corresponds to about 1,000 words. Chimpanzees are already accomplished in vocabularies exceeding 10 percent of that number.”

LanguageSign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“[Dolphins] produce signature whistles, which are high-pitched sounds with a modulation that is unique for each individual [...]. Females keep the same melody for the rest of their lives, whereas males adjust theirs to those of their closest buddies, so that the calls within a male alliance sound alike. (p. 262)”

CommunicationAnimal CommunicationAnimal IntelligenceAnimal BehaviourDolphin
Book:Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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“In addition to Ameslan, chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates are being taught a variety of other gestural languages. And it is just this transition from tongue to hand that has permitted humans to regain the ability-lost, according to Josephus, since Eden-to communicate with the animals.”

CommunicationSign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“Thus we do not yet have experience with the adult language abilities of monkeys and apes. One of the most intriguing questions is whether a verbally accomplished chimpanzee mother will be able to communicate language to her offspring. It seems very likely that this should be possible and that a community of chimps initially competent in gestural language could pass down the language to subsequent generations.”

Sign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“Would the Gardners and the workers at the Yerkes Primate Center be remembered dimly as legendary folk heroes or gods of another species? Would there be myths, like those of Prometheus, Thoth, or Cannes, about divine beings who had given the gift of language to the apes?”

Animal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“Honeybees possess amazing numerical skills that rival those of many vertebrates. Honeybees have a reputation of being insect geniuses: not only can they enumerate and order numbers, but they also possess elaborate working memory to ponder about upcoming decisions, understand abstract concepts such as 'sameness' and 'difference', and learn intricate skills from other bees. And they achieve all of this with fewer than one million neurons.”

AnimalsBeesNeuroscienceNeurobiologyAnimal BehaviorAnimal IntelligenceHoneybeesWorking Memory
Book:A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct
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“Having escaped the Dark Ages in which animals were mere stimulus-response machines, we are free to contemplate their mental lives. It is a great leap forward, the one that Griffin fought for. But now that animal cognition is an increasingly popular topic, we are still facing the mindset that animal cognition can be only a poor substitute of what we humans have. It can’t be truly deep and amazing. Toward the end of a long career, many a scholar cannot resist shining a light on human talents by listing all the things we are capable of and animals not. From the human perspective, these conjectures may make a satisfactory read, but for anyone interested, as I am, in the full spectrum of cognitions on our planet, they come across as a colossal waste of time. What a bizarre animal we are that the only question we can ask in relation to our place in nature is “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the smartest of them all?”

EvolutionCognitionAnimal IntelligenceTheory Of Mind
Book:Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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“There are a lot of obstacles in the way of our understanding animal intelligence - not the least being that we can't even agree whether nonhuman species are conscious. We accept that chimps and dolphins experience awareness; we like to think dogs and cats do. But what about mice and newts? What about a fly? Is anything going on there at all?”

ThinkingWayInspirationalMotivationalUnderstandingAnimalAcceptingAwarenessDogConsciousCatAgreeSpeciesObstaclesMiceDolphinsCat And DogNewtsAnimal Intelligence
Author:Jeffrey Kluger
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“People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines.... It appears to me, besides, that such people can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel.”

PeopleNeedsFeelsShouldWellsDifferentCharacterSeemsWould BePainJoySufferingHumanityVoiceNaturalAnimalAttentionStrangeMachinesPhilosophicalAffectionDareCrueltyVeganAnimal RightsDistinguishedAnimatedAnimal WelfareAnimal CrueltyAnimal WorldAnimal LifeAnimal EthicsAnimal TestingKindness To AnimalsDifferent VoicesDifferent AnimalsAnimal SufferingAnimal IntelligenceNatural Intelligence
Author:Voltaire
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“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

MenWarReasonDoneEarthSuccessWaterNew YorkPlanetsIntelligentIntelligenceInstanceWheelsGood TimesGalaxyHaving A Good TimePlanet EarthHuman BrainDolphinsHitchhikers Guide To The GalaxyHitchhikers GuideHitchhikingAnimal IntelligenceFord Prefect
Book:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy in Four Parts
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“We are all animals of this planet. We are all creatures. And nonhuman animals experience pain sensations just like we do. They too are strong, intelligent, industrious, mobile, and evolutional. They too are capable of growth and adaptation. Like us, firsthand foremost, they are earthlings. And like us, they are surviving. Like us they also seek their own comfort rather than discomfort. And like us they express degrees of emotion. In short like us, they are alive.”

HumansFeelingsEarthPainStrongGrowthAnimalEmotionAlivePlanetsComfortCreaturesDegreesCapableIntelligentCinemaSensationsAdaptationSurvivingMobileDiscomfortIndustriousAnimal Intelligence
Author:Joaquin Phoenix
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