Are animals more empathetic and intelligent than we think?

donfers

two examples that you may already have seen


hero dog rescues other dog from Chilean motorway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgWUeI3AHrs

fully grown lion remembers his human owners and greets them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

questions?

How did dog know his mate was in trouble?

How did dog know to drag him out of way of traffic?

Why did dog risk his own life (if indeed he thought he was risking his life) to help mate?

How did Christian remember his human owners having not seen them in so long?

Were his owners not scared that

a) he might not remember them?

b) even if he did remember them, maybe he might get too enthusiastic during the reunion and injure them?

How can a wild animal create such a bond with a different species of creature?

AnonoBoy

Christian - pretty good name for a lion considering the amount of them his ancestors would have eaten in ancient Rome.

minidazzler

How long is string?

Some animals perhaps, but stupid question.

easyeason3

I know goldfish with more empathy & intelligence than some people.

brummytom

Some people are stupid. Most animals are stupid.


They recognise/remember people, most animals do. It doesn't mean they care


My thoughts;

How did dog know his mate was in trouble?

Dogs would well be aware that cars are dangerous - every time a dog goes near the road, its owner will restrain it until it's safe to cross. They understand cars are dangerous; our cat looks both ways before crossing the road

How did dog know to drag him out of way of traffic?

As above; he thought his mate was in trouble

Why did dog risk his own life (if indeed he thought he was risking his life) to help mate?

Pack mentality, I'd presume

How did Christian remember his human owners having not seen them in so long?

Good memory?

Were his owners not scared that
a) he might not remember them?

It depends how well they knew him. If they knew him from birth and kept him for many years, I doubt they'd be worried he wouldn't remember them

b) even if he did remember them, maybe he might get too enthusiastic during the reunion and injure them?

As above, if they knew/trained him for many years, I don't see any reason as to why they're be worried.

How can a wild animal create such a bond with a different species of creature?

Who knows, we all seek companionship in different forms don't we?

Hazys

That dog is awesome!!! He's my hero!!!


The dog for Taioseach!!!!

mink_man

no because i already respect how intelligent they are!

easyeason3

brummytom wrote: »

Some people are stupid. Most animals are stupid.


They recognise/remember people, most animals do. It doesn't mean they care

Take that back!!!!
Animals do care, a lot, especially dogs.
Gonna sound like a weirdo but my pooch knows when I'm really pissed off & is extra good & affectionate.

IM0

dogs lick their own bollox..if they were intelligent they would get another dog to do it

minidazzler

easyeason3 wrote: »

Take that back!!!!
Animals do care, a lot, especially dogs.
Gonna sound like a weirdo but my pooch knows when I'm really pissed off & is extra good & affectionate.

You don't sound like a weirdo at all love, just a crazy person.

The orderlies will be arriving shortly.

IvySlayer

I do think we have a lot more in common with animals than most people think.

As for the dog, any human would've done the exact same thing. Even a dog knows that cars are fast, dangerous things and he had to get his friend to safety by dragging him. It's sweet.

The lion, he wasn't fully grown and still a teen. I imagine if he was a dominant male, things would've been different. Maybe not. I think Christian was imprinted on the humans?

donfers

by the way guys I have had numerous pms asking if the hero dog's mate died and according to Chilean authorities yes he did die

Tar.Aldarion

We are not as different from animals as people like to tell themselves. I was raised to think differently, I think otherwise.

There are far more examples than this and of animals mourning other animals or missing them etc.

easyeason3

donfers wrote: »

by the way guys I have had numerous pms asking if the hero dog's mate died and according to Chilean authorities yes he did die

I want to hurt you

Speaking as a platypus, I think we are every bit as intelligent as humans.

And we love to party.

mikom

First turtles, now this bear........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_fukbvU

Animals can be smart enough if the want to be.

Deus Ex Machina

How empathetic and intelligent do we think they are?

Little Acorn

That lion Christian was head of his own family.
A lioness (possibly more than 1-not sure), and some cubs.
Even though the lioness had never laid eyes on these 2 men before, she still let them be around her, AND her cubs, they got to sit with them and everything!

Love that story, there's more clips with the full story on youtube. It was taken from the series Born Free I think.:)

candy-gal1

mikom wrote: »

First turtles, now this bear........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_fukbvU

Animals can be smart enough if the want to be.

Pffffttttt! trying to be a panda! :rolleyes:

donfers

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

How empathetic and intelligent do we think they are?

not very, we eat them after all

Little Acorn

Elephants grieve their dead too.
A mother elephant will stay with her dead baby elephant for days on end before moving on.
Elephants will return and visit, in their herd to the body of a fellow elephant that has died recently.
Even years after a death,it has been observed that elephants if passing by will pause for several minutes in silence over area where death of another elephant took place.

Sea Sharp

People are not as empathetic or intelligent as everyone seems to think.

donfers

I have also heard that waterhorses will mourn for days, even weeks when one of their friends/loved ones dies, standing guard over the body as the crocs wait patiently to eat their mate up, until starving, brokenhearted and bereft they eventually must abandon the body and the crocs steam in

I am not trying to make you cry, I am merely exposing the soul

ScumLord

donfers wrote: »

How did dog know his mate was in trouble?

How did dog know to drag him out of way of traffic?

Why did dog risk his own life (if indeed he thought he was risking his life) to help mate?

I see nothing to say he wasn't dragging it away to eat it, seems unlikely unless food was very scarce and there where lot's of stray dogs around that may have got to the meat before him.

In wolves and wild dogs there's usually only one breeding couple and the pack look after that one set of pups so it's not unusual for dogs to look out for younger members of the pack, in hyena the young have a higher rank in the pack than older dogs.

It is odd that animals we keep as pets from birth are so attached to us, they wouldn't be so attached to their own parents or offspring, but then their own parents and offspring often wouldn't be as nice to them as their human captors.


I think there's people who don't give animals enough credit and think of them as no better than complex machines and others you give them way to much credit giving them human quality's they simply don't have.

I put them on a level pegging with humans they're living creatures born into the world the same way we are and face the same challenges we face in a different way.

mariaf24

I adore animals,i do. Especially dogs,I love them. But sometimes when people are going on and on about how intelligent and wonderful their dogs are and the dog is looking,tail wagging,hyper eyes,panting... I can't help but think that the dog is actually,well, pretty stupid....

Prof.Badass

I think through observing and dealing with animals most people can get a good idea of how intelligent/empathetic they can be, but then they over-ride this sensible conclusion with the christianity-based belief that there's nothing going on up there in an animal's brain.

While most animals might not have much in the way of abstract thought, it's logical that for example animals that live in close social groups (such as dogs) would have high social intelligence.

I don't see how any complex organism faced with decisions that impact it's survival could do so without being able to feel some sort of basic good/bad feelings. The evidence points towards even insects having their own reward systems;
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/uoia-hbo121908.php

And as for altruism, humans have nothing on the likes of ants and honeybees.

kowloon

me@ucd wrote: »

dogs lick their own bollox..if they were intelligent they would get another dog to do it

Most intelligent men spend most of their free time looking for someone to lick their balls. Perhaps the dogs have realised the futility of it all and embraced the axiom: if you want something done right, do it yourself.

nyarlothothep

animals are not people

prinz

vinylmesh wrote: »

.. but then they over-ride this sensible conclusion with the christianity-based belief that there's nothing going on up there in an animal's brain.

Christianity based belief? Uh what?

me@ucd

me@ucd wrote: »

dogs lick their own bollox..if they were intelligent they would get another dog to do it

If we could do it, we would.

Myrddin

Are animals more empathetic and intelligent than we think?

There's only one person who can answer that conclusively - Mary Harney. And from what Ive seen, the answer is clearly evident.

knird evol

Animals are people too, you know.

Prof.Badass

prinz wrote: »

Christianity based belief? Uh what?

Yes, the belief that animals do not have any awareness, that they have no real thoughts (instead they act only from instinct) and they cannot feel emotions. This was the christian teaching on animal cognition, because it shows humans and animals as being completely seperate.

While the idea itself may not be limited to christianity, it was dominant in western world because of christianity.

Mr Benevolent

Uh... we are animals.

Captain Darling

Certain parrots mourn their owners as wll dont they?

I think they actually go insane, i saw one on TV do that before. It was a bitteen sad.

peasant

We are the pathetic ones in that we only allow animals to possess intelligence or empathy once it is measurable by our standards.

Which dog is more intelligent ...the one that answers to every single one of your commands, or the one that just keeps on chewing on its bone and gives you the middle claw?

If we were truly intelligent and empathetic, we would recognise animal intelligence for what it is.

storm2811

We had a parrot,and when my father died,the parrot died soon after
The dogs were also really sad/weird for a while after too,and when someone he didn't like came to the house,they wouldn't stop barking at them and biting at their legs,but it could all be a coincidence,I don't know.

But I do think it's kinda amazing the way they leg it when there's a storm coming,or a tsunami and things like that.

Whenever I'm locked out and have to climb in a window,the dogs try to kill me like I'm some intruder,they also attacked my brother the other 'cause he was wearing a hat,"no,NOOOO,it's just me in a hat!Ahhh!",so I'm a bit divided I suppose as to how smart they really are,unless mine are just incredibly stupid.

Captain Darling

I love when small dogs are in cars and you go up to the window and they start snapping and snarling through the glass like the hound of the baskerville.

When you open the door though they are as timid as lambs.

Cracks me up every time.

Bog

Empathic? Hmm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVE60zwXx1k

Captain Darling

Bog wrote: »

Empathic? Hmm...

What in the name of jaysus did you google to get that?

Columbia

The March 2008 National Geographic has an excellent article on this (the intelligence aspect at least).

Animals, like people, display a broad spectrum of intelligence, not just between species but also within species. Some animals not only possess a sense of self, but also a sense of other - they can and do see things from other animals' perspectives. They can learn individual faces, complete abstract tasks, possess relatively impressive vocabularies (the most intelligent dogs can understand hundreds of words, bonobos thousands), and recognise sequences. Outside of our labs and experiments, animals have often been observed using tools in the wild.

furtzy

Was driving up in donegal recently...came to a junction. Across the junction was a jack russell about to cross. He stopped when he seen me... I gestured to him to cross and he gave a very cool and thankful nod and crossed....very cool dog.

ascanbe

mariaf24 wrote: »

I adore animals,i do. Especially dogs,I love them. But sometimes when people are going on and on about how intelligent and wonderful their dogs are and the dog is looking,tail wagging,hyper eyes,panting... I can't help but think that the dog is actually,well, pretty stupid....

Nah, it's more likely that the dog's owner ain't the brightest..

That 'hero dog' in the video is the littlest hobo; you can't judge other animals by his standard.

Oh, and that Chimp/Frog video is one of the most disturbing things i've ever seen.

Bog

Captain Darling wrote: »

What in the name of jaysus did you google to get that?

Yes, erm, google....

*deletes bookmarks*

ArseLtd

Crows are fairly clever aswell. From wikipedia : "Another skill involves dropping tough nuts into a heavy trafficked street and waiting for a car to crush them open, and then waiting at pedestrian lights with other pedestrians in order to retrieve the nuts."

strobe

I think the problem some people make is they for some reason think along the lines of "there are animals and then there are humans".........That sentence makes no sense, humans are just another species of animal. There is nothing particuarly unique about us. Certainly nothing that would mean every other species on the planet should be put in one group and then our species of animal in a completely different group.

Of course different species of social mammals are going to be fairly empathetic. They would have gone extinct by now if they weren't.

Unique User Name

Based on recent events I would say perhaps foxes aren't so empathetic

strobe

Unique User Name wrote: »

Based on recent events I would say perhaps foxes aren't so empathetic

Meh....Humans have killed fox cubs plenty of times. They are about as empathetic towards our offspring as we are towards theirs I would say.

Nulty

minidazzler wrote: »

How long is string?

Some animals perhaps, but stupid question.

COP OUT

Also I was told there are no stupid questions...only stupid answers and you my friend gave a stupid answer...well, the some animals part was spot on.....but the rest

Nulty

mariaf24 wrote: »

I adore animals,i do. Especially dogs,I love them. But sometimes when people are going on and on about how intelligent and wonderful their dogs are and the dog is looking,tail wagging,hyper eyes,panting... I can't help but think that the dog is actually,well, pretty stupid....

The secret life of dogs - Horizon

You cant watch the clips unless your in the UK but read the text and follow the links and you'll see why dogs are so special....or ask brummytom to watch it and give you a synopsis

Its one of the best docs i've ever watched though, seriously...

Any one else catch it?

claire2010

Love animals!! love life!!