Intelligence in nature - is there a ranking?

[Paul_B]

Just a curious thought that sprung into my mind. You hear it said a dog is more intelligent than a cat or a crow is intelligent as a dog. Or other simiar comparisons. Then you see on TV in light entertainment nature shows like season watch when they bring in a crow or raven or starling to perform for the studio and viewers. Talk about intelligence.

I just wondered if there is any means to test and rank species for intelligence? I know it is hard in a single species like humans so it is possibly impossible but has anyone put out a serious methodology and list?

This has been sparked by my partner seeing a male starling in its full irridescence and not realising it was a starling. I started my usual digression into them being intelligent like corvids are and how they are trainable. Then a look at my terrier and how she trained us so easily. There is intelligence in species other than us so how intelligent?

I do have some strange thoughts at times. Do not enter my mind it is a strange and varied place!!

 

[Glow_worm]

My not-so-intelligent brain reckons ranking intelligence would be very difficult- what aspects ought to be compared, and what is the benchmark? Humans are frequently credited as being intelligent, yet have major flaws like destroying and poisoning their environment which surely counts against them? Not quite what you're getting at though.

To be considered is the difference between intelligence, ability to learn and pre-programmed knowledge, and the importance of these depends on the species.

Take a cuttlefish for example- shown to be highly intelligent and able to learn and adapt in specially designed practical tests/puzzles, but a short lifespan of a year or two for a creature with such a large brain makes long term learning less important than using what comes built in.

As an aside, I personally think we massively underestimate the sentience and intelligence of most living things, particularly those which are not large and fluffy with big eyes. Many insects are incredibly maternal for example.

The biggest eye opener for me was walking along a rough track on the grassy chalk downland of Sailisbury Plain. Coming the other way was a mass migration of woodlice, walking a few abreast down one side of the track next to the verge. Hundreds of thousands of them, if not millions, over a distance of hundreds of yards.

What sparked this sudden migration, what seasonal or energetic trigger caused then to head off, how did they find each other, how far had they come given they were in the middle of many square miles of open rolling downland? Mind boggling, there is so much we don't know. Digging about on the internet and chatting to some friends in conservation suggests it was a rare occurance but not completely unknown.

 

[TeeDee]

Guess the term intelligence does need to be defined - is an Ant or Termite intelligent? certainly seems mass communication and organised direct effort is being undertaken but is that by way of intelligence? or simple response programming?

How would one test intelligence to be fair across the board to creatures that vary so much - from Crows without anything that look like hands to animals that do?

 

[Toddy]

I am minded of the adage about trying to measure the intelligence of a goldfish by how well it could ride a bike....

Honestly, I think the crucial thing is how adaptable a creature can be, and how adept they are at changing the world to better suit themselves.

Doesn't quite do with IQ points somehow though.

If humanity died out tomorrow, something from the rat family would eventually fill the space I reckon.

 

[TeeDee]

I am minded of the adage about trying to measure the intelligence of a goldfish by how well it could ride a bike....

Honestly, I think the crucial thing is how adaptable a creature can be, and how adept they are at changing the world to better suit themselves.

Doesn't quite do with IQ points somehow though.

If humanity died out tomorrow, something from the rat family would eventually fill the space I reckon.

Michael Gove?

 

[Glow_worm]

If humanity died out tomorrow, something from the rat family would eventually fill the space I reckon.

Aften a brief pigeon population boom then bust once they have eaten everything edible into extinction.

 

[oldtimer]

The late Tony Soper put it well, I think. "Most birds are better at being birds than humans are at being human."

 

[Woody girl]

I have to question what intelligence actualy is. Humans are supposedly intelligent, but look at the state of things, wars, murder, abuse, bullying,greed, averace, envy, destruction of the natural environment..... the list goes on, and on.......
Show me any living thing , flora or fauna, that acts like that... outside of humans.
Let's face it, unlike every other entity on this planet, we are destroying everything, that's not very intelligent!!!!

 

[Tengu]

Beavers are not smart, but they are like humans because they alter their environment to suit them.

 

[MrEd]

Having watched the magpies in my garden for a good number of years now I am convinced that corvids are more intelligent than both my dog and cat combined. Quite astonishing the things they do to overcome problems - rudimentary tools to get at food, problem solving etc.

 

[Pattree]

A very difficult comparison.

A species may be way more intelligent than it appears because it has reached a level of satisfaction and hasn’t needed to change its behaviour.

We can’t know the level of introspection, processing and visualisation that precedes another species’ realisation of a solution. Maybe very little if the realisation arises from an accident. Maybe a lot if a species thinks its way stepwise to a desired outcome.

Pet owners and parents can very willing to ascribe Intelligence to behaviour that may accidental or copied.

The clinical assessment used to be via a ratio of brain mass to body mass. I believe that biologists are counting forebrain neurons these days. (The neurons that are left over when bodily function of members of the species are accounted for). So suggests my weekly comic.

One example that impressed me but to which I am unable to put any kind of numerical standard was a parrot that had learned to open a five part locking mechanism to open a box and get its reward.

In the absence of the parrot the third lock element was removed nullifying the previous two.
The parrot didn’t hesitate, it went straight to the fourth then fifth elements. The visualisation of the new situation and its solution seemed almost instantaneous.
(Observers wore silvered visors so that their facial expression didn’t give the parrot clues.)

If an animal has mastered its environment so that its behaviour is unchanged for generations, how would we know if it has turned to philosophy, religion or maybe pure mathematics.
(…… and to what extent do these subjects indicate intelligence?)

 

[TeeDee]

A very difficult comparison.

A species may be way more intelligent than it appears because it has reached a level of satisfaction and hasn’t needed to change its behaviour.

We can’t know the level of introspection, processing and visualisation that precedes another species’ realisation of a solution. Maybe very little if the realisation arises from an accident. Maybe a lot if a species thinks its way stepwise to a desired outcome.

Pet owners and parents can very willing to ascribe Intelligence to behaviour that may accidental or copied.

The clinical assessment used to be via a ratio of brain mass to body mass. I believe that biologists are counting forebrain neurons these days. (The neurons that are left over when bodily function of members of the species are accounted for). So suggests my weekly comic.

One example that impressed me but to which I am unable to put any kind of numerical standard was a parrot that had learned to open a five part locking mechanism to open a box and get its reward.

In the absence of the parrot the third lock element was removed nullifying the previous two.
The parrot didn’t hesitate, it went straight to the fourth then fifth elements. The visualisation of the new situation and its solution seemed almost instantaneous.
(Observers wore silvered visors so that their facial expression didn’t give the parrot clues.)

If an animal has mastered its environment so that its behaviour is unchanged for generations, how would we know if it has turned to philosophy, religion or maybe pure mathematics.
(…… and to what extent do these subjects indicate intelligence?)

Mick Jagger reference?

 

[Glow_worm]

wars, murder, abuse, bullying,greed, averace, envy, destruction of the natural environment..... the list goes on, and on.......
Show me any living thing , flora or fauna, that acts like that... outside of humans.

There are plenty of species where the males compete for dominence, and kill and bully competitors. Most-if not all- of the negative aspects of human nature are just an extension of instincts we share with many animals, only amplified by our use of resources and technology.

I'm sure there are plenty of species throughout geological time which have made themselves extinct through over-consumption.

 

[Glow_worm]

Having watched the magpies in my garden for a good number of years now I am convinced that corvids are more intelligent than both my dog and cat combined

Shame most of the other avians were absent when the brain cells were distributed.... over 300 years now and they still haven't got the hang of glass!

 

[Laurentius]

Ooh a philosophical question and I one I do not think I am really qualified to answer, but I will have a go, at least I understand the concept of intelligence in the Human species and that is largely as the study is a social construct that really did not mean a lot before the industrial age.

However I think the general understanding of intelligence is how well an individual or a species is adapted to it's environment. There is intelligence within species (the infamous IQ and all that) and intelligence between species, which is evolutionary and I don't really see how you can compare a dog's intelligence to a cat's as they have evolved to do different things. If you look at a cat, in many ways they are smarter than us, they see better, they can smell better and when you drop them they can rotate their spines, amazing.

I have seen on teh interwebs lately that some animals are more linguistically capable than originally considered and not only that species pick up hints from other species, therefore animals can imitate humans acting intelligently and thus improve the intelligence within their species.

Whatever, intelligence for us as humans is a moving target, and when you consider IQ as a statistical construct, the mean is always 100 and that means there are as many people below that as above it.
It could be argued that technologies are created by those above and even in the top quartile in some cases, as with astrophysics which is well beyond me. However given that many technologies have been constructed by people above average IQ it sort of implies that there is an IQ limit below which you will struggle to operate them, thus more demands are being put on intelligence, and age also has to be factored in. An IQ test in the 1900's is different to one now, people who could excel in one then, might not be able to now, and vice versa.

Much pooh poohed in recent times is Gardner's multiple intelligence theory. (Go google) which suggests that there are different kinds of intelligences. I am afraid a certain psychologist I have been arguing and disagreeing with on line would say that if you have a high general IQ that would suggest you are more likely to succeed at these different intelligences, though I think I am going off topic.

 

[demographic]

"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.”