Oct 172010
Also less cuddly.
5 Creepy Ways Animal Societies Are Organizing
1: Chimps wage war with efficient tactics and strategies
2: Monkeys have a functioning economy
3: Fish understand advertising
4: Ants farm
5: Killer whales and crows share ideas
None of these are particularly new discoveries, but it’s interesting and amusing to see ’em all in the same place, described with humor and profanity.
Interestingly, monkeys understand market forces and basic economics, which I guess makes them smarter than socialists.
One Response to “Critters: smarter than you thought they were”
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1.) Not all that surprising, chimps are very intelligent, and the stalk and ambush tactic is commonly used by serial killers who have no training in how to do so (i.e. the instinct is innate in most predatory mammals)
2.) The authors make it seem far more complex than it actually is. Monkeys are quite intelligent and they are resourceful. The fact that they will stop working if they don’t get the same treatment as another, in a way, reflects the roots of the concept of justice and fairness. That strikes me as more impressive than the rest
3.) The fish which clean the larger fish punish those who harm the larger fish do so because the larger fish took off, and they’re unable to eat. So they attack the one that screwed them over. As for them being able to recognize certain colors of fish, that is not exactly incredibly spectacular. Survival would dictate the ability to identify threats and friends. It is impressive that they can discern color effectively as a lot of animals that are more sophisticated don’t have the best sense of color recognition.
4.) Ants farming is nothing new
5.) Orcas are highly intelligent and they can learn from one another. Technically wolves can train pups how to avoid a leg or an antler (usually one would swing the antler from a now dead deer, while the other would dodge it)