They’re just dumb animals
Just read a recent article about apes. You can read it here.
My reaction is to heave a bit of a sigh. Because the research being reported on is how apes can recognize other apes in photos and how they can look at photos and comprehend that the images have meaning – they understand the pictures in the same way that we do. The implication is that this is in some way surprising.
And I have a difficult time understanding why that should be. For millions of years the various apes and our own ancestors ran around doing rather similar things and surviving in a largely similar environment. Why would I expect there to be anything other than a difference in degree when I examine different aspects of perception and understanding?
It's not like there's any dearth of research with regard to a huge array of animals – demonstrating tool use, emotion, memory, abstract reasoning, and so forth, and it cuts a wide swath across the animal kingdom. But somehow it doesn't seem to enter into our day to day consciousness. I suppose one good reason for that is, if it did, we'd have to tackle some pretty sticky moral issues. If the things that make us "human" (intelligence, compassion, ability to analyze) really only make us TerraLife (to coin a word for sentient life on Earth), then things like species extinction due to human activities take on a larger importance and the question of why it's bad to eat humans but okay to eat monkeys (as it is in some countries) would invariably arise. Or cattle, if you want to extend the argument further.
Maybe it's good for these these research projects to be undertaken after all, if it gets us thinking. It's not like I need convincing. But for those who say "I don't believe it – prove it," well, the proof is there for the reading.
It's certainly true that most "dumb animals" are "dumb" in that they can't speak (English, that is – for sure many can communicate). But dumb as in stupid? Well ….
- And that's today's word from the bird
