this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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One of the 5 animals believed to have the capacity for sentience? I think you mean consciousness?
The entire mammal kingdom is widely considered sentient. As are many other groups like fish and insects.
Even with consciousness it's stretching it is very conservative to estimate just 5 species.
Afaik the terms are sentience vs sapience, which get constantly confused by everyone including me.
My brain came to a full stop here. One of those "have I ever seen these two in the same room" moments.
For anyone else like me: Sentience is the ability to feel and perceive things. Sentient is the adjective form.
Sapience is the ability to think and acquire wisdom, and the capacity for intelligence. Sapient is the adjective form.
Sentient is often misused for any living creature that thinks, when sapient would be the correct word.
Modern humans are classified as homo sapiens.
I think the confusion is summed up by a quote by a park ranger talking about the design of trash cans in National Parks: (paraphrased) There's a lot of overlap between the smartest bear and the dumbest human.
So if I understand, both are sentient. But they vary widely on sapience.
Sentience is recognizing the trash can is there. Sapience is being able to figure out how to open the lid to access the trash and keeping the wisdom to open the next one easily. Sentience is feeling either frustrated or happy based on the level of success.
Unless I messed it up.
"Sentience has broader and narrower senses. In a broad sense, it refers to any capacity for conscious experience. [...] In a narrower sense, it refers to the capacity to have valenced experiences: experiences that feel bad or feel good to the subject, such as experiences of pain and pleasure".
Taken from https://academic.oup.com/book/57949/chapter/475703402
Also, here is an article about the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness that strongly supports the claim that sentience is a trait shared by most, if not all, of the animal kingdom.
https://www.animal-ethics.org/10th-anniversary-of-the-cambridge-declaration-on-consciousness/