Humans think they are so smart, but we have failed to note some of the amazing things even insects can figure out with their tiny brains. Lately scientists have found out some surprising facts which point to the fact we may not be as special as we think we are. After studying insects, fish and animals they have found these creatures are far more capable of doing certain things than we thought. We believed we were the only creatures on earth who could use tools, then we found out some primates also do that. As if this was not enough of a startling find we found some birds do this routinely and then to the amazement of everyone we found out not only can ants use tools, they will test the tools to see which ones are the most efficient and then only use them. Tool use is a broad category. I guess in this case I would define it as using aids to get your task done. In the case of ants an experiment was conducted in Hungary on Funnel ants. The ants were presented with two liquids. One liquids contained water and honey. The scientist put several tools which would help the ants transport the liquids next to the liquids.

When the ants arrived they began to experiment to see which tool was the most proficient for the task. After trying several items the ants decided tiny pieces of sponge and paper would be best, because they could absorb the liquid and make it easy to move. Once the ants discovered this, they used these tools exclusively. The ants had made an intelligent decision, one which no one would have thought they were capable of. Another amazing thing was the fact the materials they used were not common to their surroundings. They were experimenting with materials they had never seen before. The ants were learning as they went along. It was almost as if they were ant scientists conducting experiments themselves. Funnel ants can’t expand their stomachs, so they can’t carry anything internally, this forces them to find other solutions. Buddhists believe we should never kill living things, not even insects. Could it be they had discovered insects were more intelligent than we thought?

Scientists are discovering parrots are a lot smarter than was previously thought. Until recently it was believed parrots were just mimics and had no idea what they were saying. After studying parrot talk for years scientists have made an amazing discovery. They discovered parrots understand different aspects of human speech such as “same”, “different”, “bigger”, “smaller”, “none” and even numbers. One has to wonder how a bird can acquire such intelligence. Have we been underestimating bird intelligence? If one studies the habits of ravens and blackbirds we find they use all sorts of tools to get their food and if other birds are watching them when they go to store their food, they make believe they are storing it in one place while hiding it in another. Are these the acts of a dumb bird or an intelligent one? There is only one conclusion we can come to and that is at least some birds are a lot more intelligent than we believed.

When we look at an elephant most of us see what looks like a huge lumbering animal which is on the docile side, I don’t think any of us would say they are super intelligent. Researchers in England have found African elephants know the difference between different languages. They seem to be able to determine not only the ethnicity of a person, but their age and gender just by hearing the sound of their voice. If they determine a person is a threat the elephant switches to defensive mode. Scientist used two Kenyan men in a test. One was from the Maasai and the other was a Kamba. The Maasai have a history of killing elephants. Two recordings were made, one by each man of the following sentence, “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming.” The recording were played to the elephant. When the elephant heard the recording by the Kamba man there was no reaction. When it heard the recording by the Maasai man things were different. The Maasai man’s recording scared the elephant. The elephant could tell who its enemy was just by hearing the recording. When the scientists had women and children from the Maasai and Kamba record the same sentence and played it to the elephant there was no reaction. The elephant only perceived Maasai men as a threat. When a fruit tree was in an area where an Asian elephant was present, the elephant tried to reach it, but couldn’t. Then it did an amazing thing. It moved a block over to the tree and stood on it and got the fruit. After that it would use the blocks to reach things and even stack blocks. When elephants get distressed other elephants will go over to comfort them and they mourn their dead.

A few decades ago scientists began to think Whales and Dolphins might be a lot smarter than we thought. Today there is some thought they might be smarter than us and we just don’t understand that yet. Examining the brains of these animals has led some scientists to think we have under-rated them. Their cerebral cortex is located in separate lobes of the brain, but are connected to their speech production and language processing. What does this mean? We are not entirely sure, but it could mean they are able to project an auditory image such as a sonar type message. This means a dolphin might be able to send the image of a certain type of fish to another dolphin. This would give them an edge over what we are able to do since we would need a computer to do the same thing. It is felt if they can do this, they might also have a language, but we are not yet able to decipher it. Some scientists believe these animals are self-aware. The cases of dolphins saving drowning humans are too numerous to cite. We may find out some day these animals are smarter than we are.

Humans are conceited. We believe we are the brightest candles on the planet. We talk about our superiority to the rest of the life here. Wouldn’t it be a put down to us if alien life came to the planet and didn’t seek us out, but instead communicated with dolphins and such? We haven’t shown the animals the respect they are entitled to. We should never treat animals badly. We may need some of them for nourishment, but that doesn’t mean we should be cruel to them. Recent experiments have shown fish possess good memories. This is something we never expected. Maybe it is time we paid more attention to the life around us.