Intelligence of Animals

The intelligence and emotions of animals has been a long debated topic in the academic and scientific world. Until recently, it has been anathema in the scientific world to suggest in print that intelligence of some sort, perhaps even self-awareness, might guide the routine and often stereotyped behavior of many animals (Gould 3). The idea of intelligence in animals has always appealed to humans. Many are thrilled to think that animals may exhibit more human characteristics, intelligence, and emotions then we have given them credit in the past. Others who oppose the idea do not like giving animals the same status as humans because it would mean giving them the same respect and treatment. I think this is what scares the skeptics. But some of the evidence is overwhelming, dolphins save people, eagles bear them over obstacles, apes and wolves nurture lost or abandoned children (Gould 2). These are just some examples of how animals are drawing attention to themselves and causing us to speculate the much debated question. What is the level of intelligence and emotions that animals are capable of?

Let's examine some of the behaviors animals have exhibited since the beginning. Hunting (deceiving predators and prey, food catching and recovery, pack hunting), building houses (termite nests, fish nests, bird nests, mammalian nests), caring for their young (cleaning their young, providing food, teaching them survival skills), communication within their species (birds, lions, elephants). These are just a few of the ways in which animals demonstrate their survival skills and they can all be compared to the survival skills of humans.

Until recently most of our knowledge of the psychology of mammals, as of other animals, was obtained simply by watching them. In this way has been accumulated a large fund of information concerning their instincts and habits, and to a certain extent their general intelligence (Holmes 232). Many scientists feel that animals have a level of intelligence which involves a thought process and others think that animals are simply driven by pleasure mechanisms. For example, a cat gets pleasure from eating therefore he eats. But animals have an incredible capacity for memory which can lead us to believe that animals can remember the past, are aware of the present, and based on their surroundings can predict the future. So far linguists and philosophers have been correct in linking human behavior of other species are bound to suggest conscious thought to roughly the extent that it shares essential features with human speech (Griffin 39).