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I really don't think you can compare animal intelligence and human intelligence. Personally I think animals are far more intelligent in the way they can live in natural harmony on the Earth. Would I know how to survive without a house, a supermarket, running water from a tap....unlikely. Animals work in ways we could only imagine. The way they know the best ways to hunt, what to eat and what not to eat, how to find water, how to build their homes, they can tell the seasons and weather without a meteorologist on the 6.00 news. They live in the most simplistic way which I envy at times. Living in big houses and driving cars and getting degrees doesn't make us smarter than them. Our need for these things has made us a huge problem. There's just far more to intelligence than being able to solve a maths problem or knowing what a noun is..
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You are so right. Intelligence is hard to measure, it is also hard to compare. The various species I have dealt with have different levels of intelligence, but it is "other" intelligence.
Animals pass on learning from one generation to the next. They plan actions and use tools. If you think about the Beavers, they build things that change their environment.
When you deal with reptiles their intelligence is really different. They are very different from us in everything they do. There is no test that we would normally use that would test them. Once we admit that, we have a better chance of seeing reptiles the way they really are. So I am observing my reptiles all the time and watching to see how they do things. I see signs of intelligence and I see differences from one reptile to another.
My Gargoyle Gecko has figured out that if he sits on his food platform, when I am on the computer, I will see him and get his food and he now knows to sit there while I give it to him. If I don't see him, he makes noise, so he knows I am responsible for food and I respond to sound. That is thinking.
Catherine