We perceive animals as intelligent if they’re good at interacting in complex ways with their environment to get what they want, in novel situations. Like if yo

We perceive animals as intelligent if they’re good at interacting in complex ways with their environment to get what they want, in novel situations. Like if you were to trap a human in an alien maze with some food in it and a viable way to get it, the human would improvise rather than starve, demonstrating intelligence. One could argue stoically accepting fate and not playing the alien’s game is also intelligent (like in Star Trek). But we work with what we have.