動物中的智力佼佼者

05-15

中文字：1088，建議閱讀時間：2分鐘；英文字：629

When discussing what makes us different from animals, you』ll always hear that we are so much smarter. While this is true we really got lucky in the way we evolved, although animals are not that far behind us. While the animals have no real interest in

inventing gadgets like us, they use intelligence in their own way that will

allow them to escape predators or catch prey.

Tool use

Animals using tools shows signs of high intelligence, mainly seen in primates and some birds its starting be seen in a lot of animals. While exploring the oceans and

the jungles its becoming more apparent that animals are starting to use tools a

lot more, one of the most shocking was on the new tv show Blue Planet 2. While

filming an octopus that was being stalked by a shark, the octopus gathered and

covered its self in shells to make itself amour and it showed it worked, when

the shark attacked the octopus and the octopus was able to escape while the shark

was confused by the shells.

One of the animals that have seen to be using tools is the crow, while it was thought that crows would use sticks to get what they need they found out that the crow will

bend bits of wire to make their own tools for what they need them for. While most animals will use what ever is

laying around to use, a crow being able to make their own tools shows a very

high intelligence and a clear understanding on how creating your own tools cost

a lot less energy than looking for sticks that fit the purpose of getting food.

An experiment with crows show they have the same intelligence as a 5-year-old

child, one experiment had a tube with water with a piece of food floating

inside the tube. The water wasn』t high enough for the crow to get to it, around

the tube was some weight that the crow could pick up. The crow was never taught

to use the weights although the crow knew that if you put the weights in the

water the water will rise, meaning it will be able to get the floating food.

the experiment had children trying to figure this puzzle out but only children

over 5 years old where able to do the puzzle without being told what to do.

Learning to speak

Communication with animals would be an amazing thing, but since we don』t have the same vocal cords and our outlook in life is so different we would have difficulty communicating and even holding a conversation. so, to do this there has to be a made-uplanguage that both animals and humans can understand each other, this was done in the Language Research Centre Georgia State University. They had a female bonobo called panbanisha who sadly passed away in 2012 due to a cold, panbanisha was able to speak to people using a special bored with a unique language. The boards have small pictures that had meanings on them that allowed

panbanisha make full sentences. She learned over 256 symbols and understand the

meanings.

She was so good that that when the photographer she was with complimented Panbanisha and told her he would get her a drink, Panbanisha promptly replied 「Coffee, milk, and juice with no ice」. Her ability was also to speak was also able to tell someone about emotions like when expressed her sadness at leaving Kanzi, a male Bonobo who was her companion, out of the game of hide and seek they were playing which would upset him and make him feel left out. With being able to speak with animals we can understand they are more human like and even more intelligent then we believe.

當我們討論是什麼讓我們有別於動物時，通常會聽到這個答案——智力。事實上我們的確在進化的路上相當幸運，當然相較而言動物其實在智力上也差的不是很遠。但是在對於事物的鑽研上，動物的確不像我們更具有熱情，它們有一套自己的方式來使它們捕獵或逃脫被獵捕。

工具使用

動物在使用工具時，顯示出了較高的智力水平，這一才能體現在了較多動物身上，集中體現在靈長類動物與鳥類的身上。在探索海洋與叢林時，動物開始顯現出使用工具的跡象。在第二部《藍色星球》中，有一個令人印象深刻的場景，當時章魚正在被一條鯊魚追蹤，於是章魚就逐漸把自己團縮起來，塞進一個殼裡，該舉動奏效了，當鯊魚攻擊章魚時，章魚能利用殼作為掩護趁機逃脫，鯊魚也完全被殼弄暈了。

另外一類善用工具的動物就是烏鴉，它們能夠藉助棒、樹枝等拿到它們想要的東西，甚至為了達到某一目的，能夠將電線彎曲。大多數動物使用工具，僅僅停留在工具本身的用途之上，但是烏鴉卻能對工具進行改造，從這一點看來，烏鴉顯現出了極高的智力水平，它們能夠以較小的成本，藉助工具的槓桿作用來獲得食物。

曾經有一個實驗證明，烏鴉的智力水平相當於一個5歲小孩的智力水平。實驗中，在一個類似圓柱體的容器內注滿水，水中漂浮了一片食物，但是水位不是很高，不足以讓烏鴉夠著。在容器的周圍有一些不同重量的砝碼，這些重量都在烏鴉可承受的範圍之內。在這之前，烏鴉從來沒有被教過如何使用這些重物，但是烏鴉顯然知道這個事實：當有相當重量體積的物體沉入水底後，會使水位上升，當然也就能夠夠著漂浮在水面上的食物。這個實驗曾經在兒童中也做過，但只有5歲以上的兒童在沒告知如何做之前，才能獨立完成這個實驗。

學會講話

與動物交流，那簡直是一件不可思議的事情，因為我們與不同物種之間有著不同的聲帶，現實中看問題的角度與觀點也不同，所以只有自創一種動物與人類都能明白的語言，在此基礎上才能交流，喬治亞州立大學的語言研究中心正在研究此事。試驗中曾經有個叫妮莎的雌性倭黑猩猩（很遺憾因感冒死於2012年）妮莎能夠以一種特別的語言，藉助一種特別的畫板來與人類交流。在這塊板上有一些小圖片，有著各自代表的意思，這些圖片能夠幫助妮莎組織完整的句子。她已經學會了超過256種有象徵意義的事物，並且明白其代表的含義。

妮莎表現如此出眾，甚至連攝影師都忍不住讚歎，並且邀請妮莎喝一杯，妮莎立即回復道：咖啡、牛奶、果汁不要加冰。妮莎的語言能力甚至能夠向他人展示自己的情緒，當她離開一隻雄性的倭黑猩猩（她的伴侶），她會向人類表達出悲傷。在一起玩捉迷藏時，如果落後，則會表現出失落。通過與動物的交流，我們能夠了解到它們更像人類的一面，甚至比我們想像的更聰明。