The Ability to Learn

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin

Do you remember back in first grade when you learned to add for the first time? You had information that you could use. You did not have to depend on other people for help with adding. That is what it is like to be an animal like cockatoos, and chimpanzees.  The other day I was wondering how much animals can learn. Aps can act, cockatoos can make tools, and Parrots and Corvids can figure out a puzzle box. Animals are now learning how to do more human like activates.

An ape named Danny had the ability to understand its surroundings and adapt. Scientists had buried a grapefruit in the sand. Danny the ape walked passed. Leaving scientist think he had no clue about the grapefruit. Three hours later when the rest of the ape family was a sleep Danny went straight to the grape fruit and devoured it. That’s one smart ape.

Danny was able to pull off that he had no clue, even the scientist believed him. This is showing us that apes are evolving into new smarter creatures. He was able to acknowledge the fact that if he dug up the grapefruit and ate it right there he would probably be sharing the grape fruit. Without even stopping to contemplate the situation, he came up with the plan and moved on. Apes are turning into highly able animals just as birds like cockatoo’s are.

A recent study that has been done by Alice Auersperg and Birgit Szado from the department of cognitive biology at the University of Vienna shows that birds like cockatoos are able to create tools to aide them in reaching a further goal like collecting nuts. Cockatoo Figaro was able to use his pointed beak to create long splinters, out of sticks from a branch, to reach a nut that was otherwise out of his reach. Figaro was able to make a new tool for each nut. Figaro is evidence that animals are growing wiser. He was able t look at the situation and come up to a solution to his problem. Figaro was problem solving a talent that was only known to primates.

If that doesn’t answer your question, I’m sorry.  But this just proves how much animals are adapting each day. This all makes me remember back when I was in 3rd grade I went to a zoo. They had a chicken that you could play tick-tack-toe against and no matter how hard I tried that chicken always beat me. Don’t forget I was in third grade. At the time I just thought the chicken was the smartest chicken in the world. Now it is clear to me that they just taught the chicken what to do. Animals can learn.

What are the smartest animals?

Which animals make the most complex tools?

How do animals teach their young?

What is another monkey that is smart?

1 thought on “The Ability to Learn

  1. I believe that everyone has a different definition of intelligent. To compare animals to humans is unfair because of the different ways we have evolved. One animal that you have not mentioned could be the octopus. One octopus has even unscrewed a jar to dine on the crab inside. Given the same jar with crab in it later, the octopus knew exactly what to do to get its food. They also disguise themselves so they will be unseen by predators. These creatures sure know what to do to survive.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2008/06/how_smart_is_the_octopus.html

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