The current, August 16, issue of Time Magazine has picture of a black pug on the cover, with the headline, "What Animals Think." The subtitle is, "New science reveals they're smarter than we realized." The story, beginning on page 37, is a lengthy and fascinating piece in which journalist Jeffrey Kluger shares information humans have learned about animal intelligence and discusses his meeting with an English-language trained bonobo named Kanzi. On the web, at http://tinyurl.com/34s2jms, you'll find what Time Magazine calls an abridged version of the article, but it is actually only an abridged version of about the first third of the article, so I recommend picking up the magazine.
I am going to share here a paragraph I found particularly compelling, not because it showed that other animals are as smart as humans but because I am not at all sure that all the humans I have met would figure this one out:
"More remarkably, last year a zoologist at the University of Cambridge -- the aptly named Christopher Bird -- found that the rook, a member of the crow family, could reason through how to drop stones into a pitcher partly filled with water in order to raise the level high enough to drink from it. What's more, the rooks selected the largest stones first, apparently realizing they would raise the level faster."
I have never doubted that other animals are smarter than humans in all sorts of ways, yet I still got a kick out of this show of an understanding of physics that I am sure not all people have.
The web story has something the print version lacks -- a video in which you can watch Kluger and Kanzi interact, and watch Kanzi make his language choices on the screen. I highly recommend checking it out. It is on line at http://tinyurl.com/2arwsqt
I know many folks on this list will feel uncomfortable, as I do, viewing the bonobo in a sterile human environment, held captive so that we can learn about his brain and judge his worth. I share this article, these studies, with some ambivalence. Given how abysmally humans treat other species, I am glad these tests are being done if they will disabuse people of the myth that other animals differ from us in some fundamental way that merits their being treated with total disrespect. Yet I am sure many people on this list will agree that it is sad that such tests are deemed necessary proof of our wrongdoing.
While the bulk of the article argues for animal intelligence and sentience, I was troubled by a paragraph that portrayed predators as somehow brighter than others, and told us that "herd animals, like cows and buffalo, exhibit little intelligence." A researcher is quoted: "In a buffalo herd, Bob doesn't care who Betty is. But among primates and social carnivores, whales and dolphins, every individual has a particular place."
I just happened to have spent last week in upstate New York, where I visited the wonderful Catskill Animal Sanctuary (http://www.casanctuary.org/ ) and met a delightful steer named Tucker. (Friends of mine or of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary on Facebook can see the fun photos of our meeting.) The sanctuary folks explained to me that Tucker is was kept with particular buddies, and that some of the others in the herd have picked on him. Reading misinformation in Time Magazine a week later about members of bovine herds not differentiating between each other was frustrating. I'll wager some bucks that the scientist who offered that quote eats cows but not dolphins or primates, so feels better believing that cows are dumb beings who can hardly tell each other apart. Rubbish.
Overall, however, the Time Magazine article is fascinating, and useful. I highly recommend reading it. And whether one agrees with all of it, or agrees with holding animals captive to teach them our language, the article presents an opportunity to speak up for the animals that we should not squander. Please send a letter to the editor so that this discussion stays alive in the magazine on the letters page. We can ask why anybody would order a fellow being for lunch when there are so many other nourishing choices. Or we can discuss the horrors of factory farming, or animal testing, or the abuse of animals in entertainment.
Time Magazine takes letters at letters@time.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any of my comments or phrases in your letters as editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts only if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line.)
Please go to http://tinyurl.com/254ulkx to check out Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen last year by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of The Year!"
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Date: Mon Aug 9 14:44:41 2010
