Animal Intelligence Quotes

“Having escaped the Dark Ages in which animals were mere stimulus-response machines, we
are free to contemplate their mental lives. It is a great leap forward, the one that Griffin fought
for. But now that animal cognition is an increasingly popular topic, we are still facing the
mindset that animal cognition can be only a poor substitute of what we humans have. It can’t
be truly deep and amazing. Toward the end of a long career, many a scholar cannot resist
shining a light on human talents by listing all the things we are capable of and animals not.
From the human perspective, these conjectures may make a satisfactory read, but for anyone
interested, as I am, in the full spectrum of cognitions on our planet, they come across as a
colossal waste of time. What a bizarre animal we are that the only question we can ask in
relation to our place in nature is “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the smartest of them all?”
― Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
tags: animal-intelligence, cognition, evolution, theory-of-mind

“By standard intelligence texts, the dogs have failed at the puzzle. I believe, by contrast that
they have succeeded magnificently. They have applied a novel tool to the task. We are that tool.
Dogs have learned this--and they see us as fine general-purpose tools, too: useful for
protection, acquiring food, providing companionship. We solve the puzzles of closed doors and
empty water dishes. In the folk psychology of dogs, we humans are brilliant enough to extract
hopelessly tangled leashes from around trees; we can conjure up an endless bounty of
foodstuffs and things to chew. How savvy we are in dogs' eyes! It's a clever strategy to turn to us
after all. The question of the cognitive abilities of dogs is thereby transformed; dogs are terrific
at using humans to solve problems, but not as good at solving problems when we're not
around.”
― Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know
tags: animal-intelligence, dogs

“I don't believe vegans (or vegetarians) who still get their (packaged, preservative/chemical-
ridden) food from industrial food systems have any righteous ground to stand on, nor do I
think a deep look at the sentient life of plants or the true environmental impact of agriculture
permits them any comfortable distance from cruelty. Everything in this world eats something
else to survive, and that something else, whether running on blood or chlorophyll, would
always rather continue to live rather than become sustenance for another. No animal wants to
be penned up and milked, or caged and harvested, and you've never seen plants growing in
regimented lines of their own accord.”
― Brian Awehali
tags: animal-intelligence, cruelty, ethics, food, plant-intelligence, veganism, vegetarianism

“If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what
until now has been described as "human rights"? How smart does a chimpanzee have to be
before killing him constitutes murder? What further properties must he show before religious
missionaries must
consider him worthy of attempts at conversion?”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, animal-rights

“Like other mammals, they are capable of strong emotions. They have certainly committed no
crimes. I do not claim to have the answer, but I think it is
certainly worthwhile to raise the question: Why, exactly, all over the civilized world, in virtually
every major city, are apes in prison?”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-intelligence, animal-rights

“I would expect a significant development and elaboration of language in only a few

generations if all the chimps unable to communicate were to die or fail to reproduce. Basic
English corresponds to about 1,000 words. Chimpanzees are already accomplished in
vocabularies exceeding 10 percent of that number.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, language, sign-language

“Thus we do not yet have experience with the

adult language abilities of monkeys and apes. One of the most intriguing questions is whether a
verbally accomplished chimpanzee mother will be able to communicate language to her
offspring. It seems very likely that this should be possible and that a community of chimps
initially competent in gestural
language could pass down the language to subsequent generations.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, sign-language

“In addition to Ameslan, chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates are being taught a variety
of other gestural languages. And it is just this transition from tongue to hand that has
permitted humans to regain the ability-lost, according to Josephus, since Eden-to
communicate with the animals.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, communication, sign-language

“Human spoken language seems to be adventitious. The exploitation of organ systems with
other functions for communication in humans is also indicative of the comparatively recent
evolution of our linguistic abilities.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, language

“Our difficulties in understanding or effectuating

communication with other animals may arise from our reluctance to grasp unfamiliar ways of
dealing with the world.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-intelligence, communication, intelligence, language

“The cognitive abilities of chimpanzees force us, I think, to raise searching questions about the
boundaries of the community of beings to which special ethical considerations are due.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-intelligence, animal-rights

“Would the Gardners and the workers at the Yerkes Primate Center be remembered dimly as
legendary folk heroes or gods of another species? Would there be myths, like those of
Prometheus, Thoth, or Cannes, about divine beings who had given the gift of language to the
apes?”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence

“Why are there no nonhuman primates with an existing complex gestural language? One
possible answer, it seems to me, is that humans have systematically exterminated those other
primates who displayed signs of intelligence.”
― Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
tags: animal-communication, animal-intelligence, language, primates

“I firmly disagree with anyone who says humans are the most advanced, or the most intelligent
species on the planet. In fact, only three animals have ever threatened to kill me: humans, their
dogs, and a particularly aggressive species of house spider.”
― Israel Morrow, Gods of the Flesh: A Skeptic's Journey Through Sex, Politics and
Religion
tags: animal-intelligence, animal-rights, animals, dark-humor, funny, funny-quotes, humanity, humour,intelligent-life