Animal intelligence

“ That animal intelligence is sufficient to prove much mimicry of an active and not of a merely passive character, is abundantly advocated by facts. That an insect or bird should seek and obtain concealment by its own volition, and by a sense of adaptation in bringing into juxtaposition its own peculiarly-coloured body with some material object with which it closely assimilates, is an exemplification of intellect, though inferior to that shown in the general psychology of Bees, Wasps, and Ants. ”

“ But throughout the animal kingdom, until we reach its highest development in man, the guidance of consciousness, important as it is, seems to be almost wholly subservient to a biological end, that of the preservation of the race, and for the race of the individual. Practical utility is the touchstone of animal intelligence, and of the whole range of feeling and emotion in beings still under examination in the stern school of natural selection. ”

“ If other investigators, especially all amateurs who are interested in animal intelligence, will take other cats and dogs, especially those supposed by owners to be extraordinarily intelligent, and experiment with them in this way, we shall soon get a notion of how much variation there is among animals in the direction of more or superior intelligence. ”

“ This capacity to vary action with reference to changing needs is the best possible index of the mental power of animals. Guided by the exhibition that has been given us by the beavers, we are justified in considering them to be the one group of mammals which has gained a distinct, rational constructive power. This feature makes them decidedly the most interesting group for investigations which may be expected to throw light on the problems of animal intelligence. ”

“ But it is open to strong suggestion that this is only one, and a subordinate phase of the phenomenon, and that animals of their own volition, and in their efforts to avoid their enemies, place themselves where possible in such adaptation to their surroundings, that protective resemblance and some forms of mimicry are due to animal intelligence, and not so entirely to what is generally understood as the unconscious process of natural selection. ”

“ Because I always desire to know the opinions of men who are writing upon their own observations, I have felt free to express my own conclusions regarding the many phases of animal intelligence as their manifestation has impressed me in close-up observations.
I have purposely avoided all temptations to discuss the minds and manners of domestic animals, partly because that is by itself a large subject, and partly because their minds have been so greatly influenced by long and close association with man. The domestic mammals and birds deserve independent treatment. ”

“ That much of the behaviour of the higher animals is guided by experience similar to that which plays so large a part in their training under the experimental conditions of domestication is generally admitted. But what are the range and limits of animal intelligence, and whether it attains the level of rational conduct, in the restricted sense of the term “rational,” are questions open to discussion, to which answers are more likely to be obtained through experiment than by chance observations. ”

“ The rodents, psychologically considered, are, of all orders in the animal kingdom, most remarkable for the differences presented by constituent species. For while the group contains many animals, such as the guinea-pig, whose instincts and intelligence cannot be said to rise above the lowest level that obtains among mammalian forms, it also contains other animals with instincts as remarkable as those of the squirrel, intelligence as considerable as that of the rat, and a psychological development as unique as that of the beaver. ”

“ Both these instincts manifest a high degree of intelligence, either on the part of the birds themselves, or on that of their ancestors; for neither of these instincts can be regarded as due to originally accidental adjustments favoured and improved by natural selection; they must at least originally have been intelligent actions purposely designed to secure the ends attained. ”

“ My doubts were bred from knowledge of the difficulty of judging the intelligence of an animal from a stage performance. So-called educated horses and even educated seals and fleas have made their appeal in large number to the credulity of the public. Can any animal below man be educated in the proper sense of the word? Or is the animal mind susceptible of nothing more than a mechanical training, and only given the specious counterfeit of an educated intelligence when under the direct control of the trainer? ”

“ It is no doubt exceedingly difficult, and perhaps impossible, to define where instinct ends, and reason begins, in animals. But that some of them are endowed with a faculty which does not come under the usual notion of instinct, by whatever other name we may choose to call it, will, I think, hardly allow of a dispute. This, as it strikes me, appears in the different degrees of intelligence which we are accustomed to recognize as elevating one species of animal above another,—as the half-reasoning elephant for instance, and the friend of man, the dog, above numberless others. ”

“ The behaviour of animals is another fascinating study, leading to a provisional picture of the dawn of mind. Indeed, no branch of science surpasses in interest that which deals with the ways and habits—the truly wonderful devices, adaptations, and instincts—of insects, birds, and mammals. We no longer deny a degree of intelligence to some members of the animal world—even the line between intelligence and reason is sometimes difficult to find. ”

“ This is especially the case with the many stories that can be told of their powers of thought and special habits and modes of action, and the reader will find here many striking anecdotes of animal intelligence selected out of the multitude that are on record. The story of the whole animal kingdom is pleasing and instructive, and that of the domestic animals, those which have come under man's special care, is specially so, as it is hoped the readers of this work will discover. ”

“ Now, it is easy to see that if any particular bird is intelligent enough, as in the cases quoted, to perform this adjustive action of conveying young—whether to feeding-grounds, as in the case of the hen, or from sources of danger, as in the case of partridges, blackbirds, and goatsuckers—inheritance and natural selection might develop the originally intelligent adjustment into an instinct common to the species. ”

“ There is no reason whatever why the bee and the ant, in their branch of life, should not have attained as high a development of structure and intelligence as the elephant or the dog in their branch of life. I do not say that they have. As it is difficult to compare their structure, in complexity and efficiency, with that of vertebrates, so is it difficult to compare their intelligence. The mere matter of size may have necessitated the condensation of intelligence into instinct in a far higher degree than was required [358] in the big-brained mammals. ”

“ If an answer must be given to the question whether instinct or intelligence has priority in the course of the evolution of behaviour, it may be urged that, on theoretical grounds, the [174] claims of instinct are the stronger. Taking animals as we actually find them, however, they afford numberless examples of behaviour at first instinctive but subsequently modified, in greater or less degree, in accordance with the teachings of experience. Let us, first, assume that the environment is slowly changing, or has changed, in some definite manner. ”

“ Although we here pass into the sub-kingdom of animals the intelligence of which immeasurably surpasses that of the other sub-kingdoms, it is remarkable that these lowest representatives of the higher group are psychologically inferior to some of the higher members of the lower groups. Neither in its instincts nor in general intelligence can any fish be compared with an ant or a bee—a fact which shows how slightly a psychological classification of animals depends upon zoological affinity, or even morphological organisation. ”

“ As we have here independent testimony of two good observers to a fact which in itself is not improbable, I think we may conclude that the nest-making instinct admits of being supplemented, at any rate in some birds, by the experience and intelligence of the individual. ”

“ In the lengthy discussions which psychologists have carried on about the amount of intelligence displayed by lower mammals, or the amount of consciousness involved in the functions of the nerve-centres of reptiles, the same test has always been applied: Is the character of the actions such that we must believe them to be performed for the sake of their result? The result in question, as we shall hereafter abundantly see, is as a rule a useful one,—the animal is, on the whole, safer under the circumstances for bringing it forth. ”

“ But this will not do when the questions require the exercise of intelligence, when they are of the nature of problems, with just those delicate but not unimportant shades of difference which baffle the candidate who has been drilled in a merely mechanical fashion. Hence the cramming of instinct does not suffice for animals whose environment presents problems of greater variety and greater complexity. Intelligence is required to meet the particular combinations as they arise. ”

“ We now come to the last group of animals which we shall have occasion to consider, and these, from an evolutionary point of view, are the most interesting. Unfortunately, however, the intelligence of apes, monkeys, and baboons has not presented material for nearly so many observations as that of other intelligent mammals. ”

“ It is difficult to say where, in the hierarchy of animal progress, the beginnings of intelligence can first be traced. In the articulated animals, such as the insects, spiders, and crustacea, there is abundant evidence of intelligence of a relatively high grade. ”

“ On this view, then, we may see in instinctive behaviour, and the multifarious automatic acts of animals, a means of providing experience of the right kind and on profitable lines. We may see in the play-instincts of the young a training ground for the more serious business of animal life—a theme developed by Professor Groos. We may see in the imitative tendency—the innate proclivity to follow a lead blindly and at first unintelligently—a further means of providing those useful items of experience which intelligence finds so serviceable. ”

“ And, after all, regarded as an act of reason, the sprinkling of crumbs to attract birds does not involve ideas or inferences very much more abstruse or remote than those which are concerned in some of the other and better corroborated instances of the display of feline intelligence, which I shall now proceed to state.
In the understanding of mechanical appliances, cats attain to a higher level of intelligence than any other animals, except monkeys, and perhaps elephants. ”

“ It may be said further that the displays of spontaneous intelligence shown by dogs, cats, and similar animals have usually been intended in some way for the advantage of the animal; few or none are on record which indicate a mere desire to know without ulterior advantage ”

“ The intelligence of the dog is of special, and indeed of unique interest from an evolutionary point of view, in that from time out of record this animal has been domesticated on account of the high level of its natural intelligence; and by persistent contact with man, coupled with training and breeding, its natural intelligence has been greatly changed. In the result we see, not only a general modification in the way of dependent companionship and docility, so unlike the fierce and self-reliant disposition of all wild species of the genus ”

“ Leaving out of count such systematic, and apparently scientific, labours as those of the ants, bees, and wasps, we constantly find in the animal kingdom powers being exercised, as, for instance, in the case of the earthworms and the moles, that are not to be explained by the use of the words instinct, intelligence, and necessity. The humblest of animals appears often to be handling forces with ease and familiarity, the range of which it must apparently, 49 if not obviously, be unaware. ”

“ It is difficult to understand this intelligence as exhibited in Birds. In the Mammals, whose organization approaches nearer to our own, we are enabled partly to comprehend their joys and griefs, but in the case of Birds it is difficult to understand their sensations. ”

“ Taking it for granted that the external indications of mental processes which we observe in animals are trustworthy, so that we are justified in inferring particular mental states from particular bodily actions, it follows that in consistency we must everywhere apply the same criteria. ”

“ They should prevent our rushing to the conclusion that because a cat, or dog, or horse behaves in a sensible manner under certain conditions, it is exercising intelligence. Natural selection has brought instinct to such perfection that many instinctive actions are very difficult to distinguish from those which are intelligent. ”

“ In those mammals, like dog and horse, which have entered into active cooperative relations with man, we see that the mind of the mammal is capable of much more than the average would lead us to think. When man's sheltering is too complete and the domesticated creature is passive in his grip, the intelligence deteriorates. ”