Animal intelligence versus instinct. Do you believe animals are intelligent? Or do they just act on instincts? Focus on your opinion regarding whether or not you believe animals’ actions are intelligent or only made by instinct
Animal intelligence versus instinct. Do you believe animals are intelligent? Or do they just act on instincts? Focus on your opinion regarding whether or not you believe animals’ actions are intelligent or only made by instinct and give examples from your experiences and the articles to prove why you feel the way you do.
BIOLOGY is a science not only of the dead but of the living. The behaviour of animals, not less than their form and structure, demands our careful study. Both are dependent on that heredity which is a distinguishing characteristic of the organic world. And in each case heredity has a double part to play.
It provides much that is relatively fixed and stereotyped; but it provides also a certain amount of plasticity or ability to conform to the modifying conditions of the environment. Instinctive behaviour belongs to the former category; intelligent behaviour to the latter.
When a caterpillar spins its silken cocoon, unaided, untaught, and without the guidance of previous experience; or when a newly-mated bird builds her nest and undertakes the patient labours of incubation before experience can have begotten anticipations of the coming brood; we say that the behaviour is instinctive.
But when an animal learns the lessons of life, and modifies its procedure in accordance with the results of its individual experience, we no longer use the term instinctive, but intelligent. Instinct, therefore, comprises those phases of active life which exhibit such hereditary definiteness as fits the several members of a species to meet certain oft-recurring or vitally-important needs.
To intelligence belong those more varied modes of procedure which an animal adopts in adaptation to the peculiar circumstances of its individual existence. Instinctive acts take their place in the class of what are now generally known as congenital characters; intelligent acts in the class of acquired characters.
Scientific research shows that many animals are very intelligent and have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles. And bats, dolphins, whales, frogs, and various rodents use high-frequency sounds to find food, communicate with others, and navigate.
Many animals also display wide-ranging emotions, including joy, happiness, empathy, compassion, grief, and even resentment and embarrassment.
It’s not surprising that animals—especially, but not only, mammals—share many emotions with us because we also share brain structures, located in the limbic system, that are the seat of our emotions. In many ways, human emotions are the gifts of our animal ancestors.
Many animals display profound grief at the loss or absence of a relative or companion.
Sea lion mothers wail when watching their babies being eaten by killer whales. People have reported dolphins struggling to save a dead calf by pushing its body to the surface of the water. Chimpanzees and elephants grieve the loss of family and friends, and gorillas hold wakes for the dead.
Donna Fernandes, president of the Buffalo Zoo, witnessed a wake for a female gorilla, Babs, who had died of cancer at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. She says the gorilla’s longtime mate howled and banged his chest, picked up a piece of celery (Babs’ favorite food), put it in her hand, and tried to get her to wake up.