I read an article about animal cognition and a particular part attracted my attention. It basically said that crows are one of the most intelligent species in the world and they approximately have the same IQ level with a 7 year old child. How do scientists and researchers actually compare these? How can we be sure that some intelligent animals (such as dolphins, crows, octopuses) are indeed intelligent? Not sure if I am right or wrong but I thought we can’t really be sure if they are indeed intelligent since they can’t talk. I mean we don’t know how they really “think” in the way we, humans do. So this is why I wanted to ask this question here. What exactly makes crows as smart as a 7 year old child? Are the tests they succesfully completed enough to prove this?
In: Biology
You cannot test an animal by humans standards because animals do not live the lives that we do
But you can test to see how well an animal is adapted to its environment, and if it uses cognition to make the tasks it has to do easier. You can also test for recognition of familiar objects and fellow creatures, and to see if they remember where food is stored, or if something is missing when they go back for it. eg show an animal there are 4 pieces of food behind a screen, then remove one and see if the animal realises one is missing
Latest Answers