Yes of course.

My post was made in reply to Keyser's post asking how many people would risk their lives to save another species that was not their pet.

Corvids are aware of their own mortality, fear death and mourn their dead family and friends.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150...hat-fear-death

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...ulture-brains/

Fascinating stuff. It's a pity we probably won't ever know the extent to which dinosaurs were intelligent too [as I'm sure some of them were].

It's a very interesting subject.

Here is an article by Darren Naish from a few years ago.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...ted-revisited/

The wonderful gorilla Koko was 44 this year

Happy birthday!

http://news.discovery.com/animals/fa...ens-151015.htm

http://news.discovery.com/animals/ko...tos-151017.htm

Is intelligence and consciousness related? Some AI proponents claim intelligence and consciousness are related.

I think consciousness and intelligence go hand in hand although it is an incredibly complex subject.

But as this thread proves even very humble animals such as the humble fruit fly show a surprising amount of awareness and the science of animal cognition is still in it's infancy.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...s-possible.htm

Robots (pieces of equipment) can be "aware" but that doesn't make them conscious.

Are you aware of any brain mass data on a species by species basis. I think the brain can be divided into lower, middle and higher brain. Consciousness seems to be located in the higher brain, so a table giving higher brain mass as a percentage of total brain mass would be instructive. In terms of evolution - Homo species had a rapid evolutionary expansion of the higher brain (cerebral cortex).

Doesn't matter what your IQ is, people all have consciousness.

All animals (Including humans) use their intelligence to meet their own individual needs annd desires. None of my cats have ever shown the slightest desire to do the Times crossword.

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/wp-con...eacefulguy.jpg

EQ (Encephalization quotient) is a very rough guide (at least in vertebrates) to intelligence and so is absolute brain mass.

But as I have sad the subject is so complicated we are just at the very beginning of discovering what other species are capable of.

Is consciousness possible without memory?

Interesting question but even very 'primitive' animals seem to have some form of memory.

This is a good blog that you may enjoy on the subject.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/not-bad-science/

The Portia (a genus of jumping spider) - some label this spider as a genius

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037s83w

Wiki says 'They are remarkable for their intelligent hunting behaviour which suggests they are capable of learning and problem solving, traits normally attributed to much larger animals'.

They can disguise themselves as something else to draw in the unsuspecting prey. They even make different patterns of vibrations in the web that aggressively mimic the struggle of a trapped insect so the web builder has to investigate which invariably leads to their downfall. However, they will sometimes back off if the intended victim responds belligerently.

These intelligent arachnids display various methods of catching their prey. This adaptable creature then disables their victims efficiently, sometimes using their catch to lure in other unsuspecting souls. How can you survive a creature with such purpose. Nature can be unforgiving.

nice job Picto

Conclusive proof that cats are more intelligent than humans then!

Portia spiders are one of my favorite animals.

The predation sequences featuring the little genius in 'The Hunt' was simply incredible - all that brain power in such a tiny animal!

Simply astonishing.

I found a website on Corvid research - I have not had time to read it yet but here it is and here is an article related to the site.

https://corvidresearch.wordpress.com/

https://corvidresearch.files.wordpre...osphere_11.pdf

I LMAO at my sons cat. He is mad for crispy duck. And he knows when my son picks up the menu to phone the take away crispy duck is on the menu and goes mad until it arrives. Cats are weird .

Wow, that's very impressive. Such a pretty spider too.

As I said previously the sequences in 'The Hunt' were one of the most impressive displays of animal intelligence that I have ever watched.

I think you're confusing consciousness with intelligence. They're certainly not the same thing.


So the cat has learnt that when the menu is picked up together with the phone expect crispy duck? Whats wierd about that? Ever heard of conditioned reflexes? It doesn't require intelliegence so much as experience.

Pavlov's classic study of conditioned reflexes on dogs, since you seem to think cats are a special case (they're not)
http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html


Intelligence or instinct? There is certainly very little individual intelligence and whether you can say they act as a collective hive mind either way their behaviour has little to do with reasoning they're simply following a set of hard wired instructions i.e. swarm, find a suitable location, form a hive.

Humans are no different in being driven by instinct (grow up from juvenile stage whilst staying close to care giver, leave the nest, find mate, breed and die) we're capable of far more inbetween.

You could argue that because 99% of humans would never have had the 'inteligence' to invent tv or discover gravity or get us into space, that actually, human inteligence in the average person is over-rated. Most of us exhibit learned behaviour, like animals.

At the same time, we're probably under-rating animal inteligence

Empathy in voles for their loved ones.

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/a...mpathy/425034/

http://news.discovery.com/animals/ro...ain-160122.htm

It's not an animal nor is it intelligent - but this story is very interesting nonetheless.

The famous Venus Flytrap can 'count'!

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/a...s-prey/424782/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-hso011516.php