Setting aside the riff on “advanced eating techniques (insects have different eating parts in any event), the big takeaway here is that chimps and dolphins are not much smarter than bumblebees. Humans are still the Big Exception.
Animal minds
“Murder” on the Serengeti?
“A new study of violent behavior in more than 1,000 mammal species found the meerkat is the mammal most likely to be murdered by one of its own kind.” Could someone please post the Meerkat Ten Commandments? Ten Suggestions even?
Bumblebees can solve puzzles like chimps?
Human exceptionalism is becoming more obvious all the time, just harder to admit.
Researchers: “An increased heart rate creates anxiety.” Well yes, but …
We didn’t know that was even controversial. Even a mouse would have to be concerned. What he can do about it is, of course, another matter.
Our brains “control” how sick we get?
Well, no. Our minds often do, however.
Animals’ “sixth sense” is not just human imagination, as often claimed
At Phys.org: “This study has made significant advances in understanding how animals sense and respond to external magnetic fields—a very active and disputed field.” For all we know, humans have that sixth sense too. But we don’t pay much attention to fine points about anything beyond sight, sound, taste, and touch.
Claim: Cuttlefish can solve problems developed for children
Cuttlefish are a problem for conventional assumptions about animal mind. Like their kin octopuses, they are exothermic invertebrates — not supposed to be smart, as the video points out. But as smart as children? Let us know when they grow up to teach calculus at the local U.
Fun: Cats sense earthquake before it occurs. But how?
Caught on video. They may be sensing the p waves that occur first and don’t shake the building much.
Oxytocin — that supposedly creates attraction — not needed, new study shows
Well, it might be genes…. But gosh, if researchers can’t easily find a purely materialist explanation for devotion even in a rodent, why are we supposed to be listening to “the Voice of Science” on such topics where humans are concerned?
Cockatoos found to rival chimps in tool set use
What the cockatoos are doing is not all that spectacular actually. The take-home point no one wants to talk about is that chimpanzees are not outstandingly more bright than many birds, despite their close genetic relationship to humans.
At Science News: Fish can recognize themselves in photos, thus may be self-aware
Cleaner wrasses may be self-aware, of course. But just as we would not conclude that a dog who flunks the mirror test is not self-aware, we should not conclude that the fish who passes it IS self-aware. We need to know what else the dog or the fish does that implies self-awareness.
Unique octopus genes seem to have appeared from nowhere
The octopus — a highly intelligent short-lived exothermic invertebrate — should sink lectern-splintering Darwinism — but then the octo does not have tenure and many of the lectern splinterers do. That’s life. But so is finding out the facts.
Claim: Language originated in hand gestures. How do we know?
Researchers say, because humans can interpret chimp hand gestures. But wait…
Are crows really as smart as 7 year old children?
Pro and con videos. What’s really interesting is that anyone actually counters the statement. In a materialist society, people take for granted that that is true without ever wondering why crows are sitting on OUR telephone poles….
At Mind Matters News: Researchers are zeroing in on animal number sense
It’s long been known by observation that many life forms can count, up to a point. The question of how, exactly, they do it is the science goal at present.