Griffith Jr.

Mark Griffith Jr.

Professor Cassel

ENG 1201

21 March 2019

Intelligence, Emotion and Culture of Animals

If someone called, you a birdbrain would you be upset? The implication being that you

are stupid or unintelligent. What if someone told you that it really shouldn’t be. Animals are

capable of some truly amazing things that have a shocking similarity to humans. Like the tiger

who sought out revenge on the three teens who tormented her or the elephants that held a funeral

service for a fallen friend. Animals are capable of complex intelligence, emotion and culture that

closely emulates humanity.

On Christmas day December 2007 a 4-year-old Siberian tiger escaped her enclosure and

attacked three men killing one and injuring the other two. The tiger, Tatiana, was able to scale a

12 ft 9in wall leaving deep claw marks in

the wall and cement chips embedded in

her claws. What followed was chilling

and calculated attack where she killed

one person near her enclosure then

followed the blood trail of the two other

300 yards. She attacked and injured the

Figure 1 Image showing how Tatiana escaped her exhibit before two before being shot and killed by
attacking the three teens (Bevan, Alex and Mendoza, Jorge)
officers who responded to the 911 calls.

The incident is odd and seems to go against everything experts know about tigers according to
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Dave Salmoni a predator expert for The Animal Planet Network. Stating "To get a tiger to want

to fight you is pretty hard," says Salmoni. "Tigers don't like to fight. They hunt to kill and eat.

That's it” (Silver).

Pine cones and stick were found in the tiger exhibit leading investigators to believe that

the animal was taunted some time before the attack (NYPost). Avoiding all other humans and

animals exhibits then specifically targeted these three individuals. Gay Bradshaw, professor of

psychology and ecology at Oregon State University believes that “grudge” may not be a correct

term and it may be something called “trans-species psychology”. She may have been suffering

from PTSD or some sort of trauma from earlier in her life with the taunting being the trigger

causing her to act abnormally. Many experts are divided on the topic of animal emotion as many

believe that they aren’t capable of feeling emotions on a deeper level and point to Tatianna’s

swipe at a keeper during feeding time one year earlier. There is no way to tell exactly how an

animal is feeling and admittedly animal and human emotion aren’t the same. She was not put

down as the head of the zoo at the time stated that she was only acting how tigers naturally do.

But, as the author of the Time article Alexandra Silver puts “… perhaps, behaving like a tiger is

not so psychologically distinct from behaving like a human.”

The emotions they are capable of may not be limited to just holding a grudge or seeking

revenge and some animals such as orca whales or elephants may be capable of experience grief

at the passing of a family member or offspring. To understand what grief is, it must be defined

first. According to Dictionary.com grief is “Keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or

loss. Elephants have long been known to gather and call out to their downed friend often staying

with the body for hours before moving on, some even longer if it is a parent or the two creatures

were particularly close. Parents have been known to move the corpse of a fallen child to a
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secluded or covered area and then even guard it from predators for days before finally moving

on. The more moving evidence is when researches played a recently deceased elephants call to

its herd through a speaker hidden in a nearby bush. The reaction was staggering as the whole

herd responded by not only calling out but also actively searching for her, the fallen animals’

daughter spent days calling for her mother so much so that the researchers never repeated the

experiment again (Safina). There are multiple different instances of animals holding vigil over

one of their fallen members. Particularly elephants, once sport hunter shot a large male but had to

leave the scene due to nearby elephants gathering and surrounding the fallen animal. When the

hunters finally returned to claim the fruits of their hunt the scene that awaited them was puzzling.

The surrounding elephants had covered their compatriot with a mixture of dirt and leaves while

packing mud onto head wound from the bullet (Safina).

Just like emotions people also vastly underestimate just how intelligent animals are. Just

look at the saying “bird brain” or the idea that a smaller brain lends to a lack of intelligence. Yet

ravens can solve problems, crows can use tools and parrots are able to learn and repeat words in

many different languages and accents. While ravens are capable of doing something that even

monkeys our closest genetic relative aren’t capable of, Pre-planning tasks. A 2017 study showed

that ravens were capable of being taught to use and remember a tool to get a treat. They were

taught the correct tool to use to complete their task and then 24 hours later were given the same

task, but this time were given a choice of multiple tools. The birds were able to correctly choose

and use the same tool from the day before (Stymacks). The birds are also shockingly able to

learn from death. Upon encountering a dead member of their species, they will gather around and

investigate the body. Researchers at first believed that the crows were mourning the fallen but
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after much research they will able to discover that the animals were investigating what killed it

and how the individual might be able to avoid the same fate (Bittel).

Conversely Killer Whales are known to have substantially larger brains weighing in at

around 15 pounds. But as stated earlier it isn’t just the size of the brain that is an indicator of

intelligence but the size of the brain in relationship with the overall size of the individual.

Humans are 1:40 or 7 times the average while Killer Whales are about 2 ½ times the average

similar to chimpanzees (Spear). Neuroscientist who have studied the Cetaceans (marine

mammals) say they are impressively wired to both sense and analyze they’re watery

environment, capable of learning different complex dialects and teaching them to multiple

different generations. Scientist believe this is the reason there has never been a report of a wild

orca attacking a human despite their status as apex predators (Spear). Over the years there have

been many reports of stalking or charges yet as soon the whales recognize that the target is

human and not a seal they pull off and move on to more appetizing targets.

But Crows, Ravens and Killer Whales aren’t the only clever animals as scientist put

racoons through a test meant to determine their ability to understand cause and effect. Known as

the Aesop Fables, where they

drop a marshmallow in a tube

of water with the level just out

of reach of the racoons. They

then show the animals how

dropping stones in the tube

raises the level and makes the

Figure 2 Racoon during AESOP Fable intelligence test (Langley, Liz) marshmallow accessible. 2 of
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8 raccoons were able to repeat this behavior and reach their prize while a third took a racoon-y

approach and was able to rock the tube back and forth until it tipped over. Something, that

scientist had designed against by using a heavier base to prevent the it from tipping while the

animals climbed on it (Langley).

For the second part of the experiment the animals were given two sets of balls. One set is

buoyant while the other is weighted to allow them to sink and displace the water. The goal was

the same as the previous test raise the water level to retrieve the treat that is just out of reach.

Once again, the two racoons whom excelled at the first test proved two things...

1. Never underestimate just how creative a racoon can be.

2. Even when you don’t underestimate them their solution to problems will be counter

intuitive and surprise you.

One racoon repeatedly pressed the buoyant ball underwater causing the marshmallow to

bounce up and into reach. While the 2nd racoon spun the ball rapidly to collect the floating bits of

marshmallow before licking them off. In theory the buoyant balls shouldn’t work as they don’t

displace any water therefore not raising the water or marshmallow. They were proven wrong to

the surprise of study co-author Sarah Benson-Amran, director of the Animal Behavior and

Cognition Lab at the University of Wyoming. “unless you’re a raccoon and can turn a non-

functional object into a functional object,” (Langley).

Finally, the combination of both high intelligence and emotion leads to something that

can only be described as culture. While there is much disagreement and in-fighting over how the

word culture is applied to animals the definition “Shared variation of behavior that is generated

and maintained through social learning such as teaching or imitation”, is widely accepted. Orca

whales are increasingly being known for what can only be described as culture (Norris, 10). The
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whales are widely spread thorough out the ocean with a wider dispersed range than any other

whale or dolphin. With 3 distinct populations that hold different languages, hutting tactics and

the way they interact with other sea creatures. Brad Hanson, a National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration biologist explains it perfectly "If they didn't have the same paint

jobs, you'd call them different

species,"(Spear).

Scientist were able to further

prove that the differences aren’t

environmental or genetic as all orcas

have similar DNA. Their genetics don’t

Figure 3 Pod of Killer Whales breaching harbor surface (Kallman, Tory)
grow and branch out like a tree but

grows in a long straight line with only a few mismatched genes (Spear). This can be seen in the

dynamic of their family units or pods as they’re called. Males spend their whole lives with their

mothers’ pod while females’ mate and start or join their own pod known as “matrilineal” group.

In over 20 years of studying and research regarding their group’s, scientist have witnessed no

evidence of a whale leaving one pod and joining another. The pods have also been seen to show

preferential treatment of other pods by showing similar dialect or languages while also having

what scientist described as complex greeting ceremonies (Norris, 10-11). Despite sharing the

same water and frequent interaction Orcas use different dialects unlike other animals who may

have different calls or ways of communication based on the region they happen to reside.

However, unlike Orcas, humpback whales share seem to share similar songs that can last

20 minutes and are shared by whales that may be over 4500 kilometers apart. Scientist believe

that there is a sort of unseen social pressure that causes male humpbacks to learn and sing one
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specific song with very little drift or change. The chart below was feature in Luke Rendell and

Hal Whiteheads paper research paper found on the Sinclair library resource site. The graph

shows that if a phenomenon doesn’t have ecological or genetic causation then the other plausible

explanation could be social learning/teaching which is a characteristic of culture.

Figure 4 Cetacean Culture Causation (Rendell, Luke, and Hal Whitehead)

Deep down animal anger and grief isn’t any different than a human’s anger and grief.

Emotion, intelligence and culture doesn’t have any boundaries or set of rules and just because

animals show different forms of the those three doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of them

Animals are capable of complex intelligence, emotion and culture that closely emulates

humanity.
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Work Cited

Bevan, Alex and Mendoza, Jorge. “The San Francisco Zoo Tiger Escape And Attack” Plaintiff

Magazine, Sept. 2009, https://www.plaintiffmagazine.com/recent-issues/item/the-san-

francisco-zoo-tiger-escape-and-attack. Accessed 4 April 2019.

Bittel, Jason. “Think Crow Funerals Are Strange? Wait Until You See the Wake”. Audobon.org,

National Audubon Society, 23 July 2018, https://www.audubon.org/news/think-crow-

funerals-are-strange-wait-until-you-see-wake, Accessed on 24 March 2019.

Kallman, Tory. Shutterstock.com,

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/toryjk?searchterm=Orca%20Pod, Accessed 2 April 2019

Rendell, Luke, and Hal Whitehead. “Culture in Whales and Dolphins.” Behavioral and Brain

Sciences, no. 2, 2001. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.78033515&site=eds-live.

Safina, Carl. “The Depths of Animal Grief”. PBS.Org, Coporation for Public Brodcasting, 8 July

2015, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/animal-grief/, Accessed 4 March 2019.

Silver, Alexandra. “Did this tiger hold a grudge?”. Time Inc, Time Magazine, 28 Dec 2007,

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1698987,00.html, Accessed on 3

March 2019.

Spear, Kevin. “How smart are killer whales? Orcas have 2nd-biggest brains of all marine

mammals”. PHYS.ORG, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla), 8 March 2010,

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https://phys.org/news/2010-03-smart-killer-whales-orcas-2nd-biggest.html, Accessed on

3 March 2019.

Stymacks, Amelia. “Why Ravens and Crows Are Earth’s Smartest Birds”. National Geographic,

15 March 2018, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/year-of-the-bird-brains-

intelligence-smarts/. Accessed on 3 March 2019

Langley, Liz. “Raccoons Pass Famous Intelligence Test—By Upending It”, National

Geographic,21 Oct 2017, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/animals-

intelligence-raccoons-birds-aesops/, Accessed 17 March 2019.

Norris, Scott. “Creatures of Culture? Making the Case for Cultural Systems in Whales and

Dolphins.” Bioscience, vol. 52, no. 1, Jan. 2002, p. 9. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1641/0006-

3568(2002)052[0009:COCMTC]2.0.CO;2.

“Killer Zoo Tiger Was Taunted Before Attack”. NYPost.com, The New York Post,12 Feb 2011,

https://nypost.com/2011/02/12/killer-zoo-tiger-was-taunted-before-attack/, Accessed 24

March 24, 2019.