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Animals are far smarter than you think, and instinct is far less important than you think. Most animals learn by imitation of their parents or others of their o
by sdenton4 4y ago
Animals are far smarter than you think, and instinct is far less important than you think. Most animals learn by imitation of their parents or others of their own species. This is a big part of why reintroduction of captive animal populations into the wild is so difficult.
And adaptability is highly variable by species; koalas will for quickly without their specific eucalyptus, but raccoons will thrive just about anywhere.
As I've read and researched, I've come much closer to the opinion that we're slightly smarter monkeys with writing.
- munificent 4y ago> Animals are far smarter than you think I know this is, like, a meme in our culture. And I get that it's important for the pendulum to swing back from the 19th century idea of animals as dumb brutes. But human beings are way fucking smarter than animals when it comes to general plastic intelligence and problem solving. I'm not disparaging animals here, and I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't appreciate their many capabilities. But humans can do stuff like set up a tarp to collect condensation and understand the chemistry behind phase changes for how that works. Sure, that's because we were taught by prior humans who incrementally figured that out, but no other animal is even capable of being taught anything anywhere near that level of sophistication.