Reptiles are intelligent

[Tobi]

Haha! I did an IQ test once, and didn't even understand what the questions meant! It took me quite a while to understand what it was they wanted me to do!
Okay....I'd only had 3 hours sleep at the time, and no way enough coffee....(that's my excuse) but I came out as 'average'.
I couldn't be bothered to do it again.

In mitigation plea....I don't understand what humans want me to do sometimes.

[Catherine]

Quote:Haha! I did an IQ test once, and didn't even understand what the questions meant! It took me quite a while to understand what it was they wanted me to do!
Okay....I'd only had 3 hours sleep at the time, and no way enough coffee....(that's my excuse) but I came out as 'average'.
I couldn't be bothered to do it again.

In mitigation plea....I don't understand what humans want me to do sometimes. Smiley4

You were probably given a test that did not fit your background so it wouldn't make sense and the results would be inaccurate. You wrote a book so you are hardly "average". A physically handicapped friend of mine was given a test that needed some dexterity, which he does not have. It showed him as being average, but he graduated from university with distinction.

I think not understanding some humans is a sign of intelligence.
They tested elephants to see if they recognized themselves in a mirror and got negative results until they used an elephant sized mirror.

I have no idea how I would test my snakes intelligence. Some of them are smarter than others. It may take me years of living with them and observing them to even know that much. I think corn snakes are smarter than people give them credit for. The pine snakes move things around in their tank to set it up the way they want. They figured out how to do that. Danny didn't do things like that as a baby. She learned how to do things. They all know that my purple thermal bag means food. They also know they eat on the second day of my weekend. I was off on Good Friday, so they figured they should get fed on the Saturday instead of the Sunday. They were a little annoyed at me for making them wait until I actually had the food at home.

[KynaMavies]

Thank you Catherine I am glad you enjoyed it !! x

[Catherine]

It was a great video. Of course I really like reptiles so I may be a little biased.

My dear little Jake Krinkle Snake is smart enough to know that he needs my help shedding and he is so good and cooperative when I work on him.

[platy]

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..

[Catherine]

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.