this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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How do you define intelligence?
"The ability to acquire, understand, and use knowledge."
Someone having faster reflexes giving them the ability to catch fast moving objects is not a matter of knowledge, but muscle strength and agility.
The same would go for running, or swimming, or catching a fish with giant claws.
When doing things, it's whether the limiting factor is physical or if it's information they have or don't have.
I suppose with running, for example, there will be a lot of knowledge for running technique. But no amount of technique or breathing exercise would make up for lack of muscle.
Most functions are learned. Even by animals.
It sounds like your definition is "learning".
All animals possess this ability.
Acquisition of learning relies on sensory and motor systems of an animal.
For instance. If I trained a rat to push a lever with its paw. It would learn it much faster than if I trained a rat to peck (like a chicken) with it's nose at a lever.
Likewise. I could train a pigeon to peck at a lever to push it much faster than training it to use its wing to push a lever.
A rat doesn't use its nose to peck and a pigeon doesn't use its wing to grab or push things.
The animal wouldn't be stupid for not learning to use an appendage in an abnormal way.
There is an enormous amount of research on animal intelligence. Many people are not aware of this.
You might be surprised by what it shows.
When you evaluate animals based on their systems they show remarkable ability to problem solve and learn.
Many animals also learn quickly by watching another animal of the same species do the action. Sometimes requiring only one viewing.
Sounds like human level learning, huh?
The brains and neuro processes for learning are basically identical in vertebrae animals. We all have the same basic structures and the same types of neurons and organization. It's not surprising we are more similar than different.
People often think animals and humans are much more different than what they really are.
They tend to focus on superficial factors like speech.
Or say animals don't create art (many do). Dont morn over deaths (many do) . Don't play (almost all do). Don't learn (the all do). Don't feel pain (they all do).
Well. I dont know how to speak bird talk either. Does that make me dumber than them ?
Also a neat study on pigeons (who happen to have a pretty small brain ) found they could learn to distinguish painting styles from different artist.
A bird can learn to tell who painted an art piece that they have never seen before based on previous experiences with the same artists works.
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c12401/
Also even Wikipedia has a decent section on animal intelligence research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_cognition