Do animals think?

Title

Do animals think?

Creator

Clark, F. B. M.

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Animals.

Animal behavior.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

Condensed from Chambers’ Journal (London), August ‘30.

Fulltext

DO ANIMALS THINK? It used to be believed by scientists that animals were guided in their actions en tirely by instinct, by natural impulses supposed to arise from long-ingrained habits in the race. The hive bee makes its cell without any instruction, and the cuckoo of her own accord lays her eggs in the nests of other birds. However, in more re cent times, naturalists have come to feel that some sort of reasoning process does go on in the brains not only of the higher animals, such as dogs and monkeys, but of lower creatures, such as the snake and even the fish. All appear to be capable of hav ing “ideas.” In his work on The Des cent of Man Darwin quotes this story: “A pike which was separated by a plate of glass from an adjoining aquarium, stocked with fish, often dashed himself with such violence against the glass in trying to catch the other fishes, that he was sometimes completely stunned. The pike went on thus for three months, but at last learned caution and ceased to do so. The plate of glass was then removed, but the pike would not at tack these particular fishes, though he would devour others that weje afterwards introduced; so strongly was the idea of a violent shock associated in his feeble mind with the attempt on his for mer neighbors.” Darwin also makes men tion of a snake which was observed to thrust its head through a hole in a fence and swallow alive a frog on the other side. On account of the swelling made by the body of the frog in its neck, the serpent was unable to withdraw through the hole, and had to “cough up” its prey. A second time the frog was swallowed, with the same result, and a second time it had to be disgorged. August 1968 43 On the third occasion, how ever, the snake seized the frog by the leg and pulled it through the hole, after which it was able to swal low it in comfort. If this is not an act of reason it is certainly difficult to ex plain it in any other way. Rengger, a German natu ralist, states that when he first gave eggs to his mon keys in Paraguay they smashed them and thus lost much of the contents; but afterwards they gently hit one end against some hard body, and picked off the bits of shell with their fingers. Sometimes lumps of sugar were given to them wrapped up in paper, and occasional ly Rengger would put a live wasp in the paper, so that in opening it a monkey would get stung. But any monkey that suffered in this way would never afterwards open the bag without first holding it to its ears to dis cover if there was any move ment within. Sir -Andrew Smith, a noted zoologist, himself witnessed the fol lowing incident in South Africa. An army officer had frequently teased a certain baboon. The animal, seeing him approach one Sunday dressed up for parade, quick ly poured some water into a hole and made some thick mud, which it dashed over passed by. For a long time afterwards whenever this baboon saw this officer it made signs of rejoicing. Female monkeys have been observed carefully keep ing the flies over their in fants, and both male and female monkeys do not hesi tate to adopt and care for orphan monkeys left unpro tected. One female baboon observed by Brehm had adopted a kitten which one day scratched her. This as tonished her very much. She proceeded to examine the paws she had always found so soft, and presently disco vered the claws, which she proceeded to bite off, evi dently considering them dangerous. According to Darwin, dogs, cats, horses, and pro bably all higher animals, and even birds, have vivid dreams, which is shown by their movements and the sounds they utter, and he is of the opinion that from this we must admit that they have some power of imagina tion. 44 Panorama Colonel Hutchinson, in his work Dog Breaking, tells about two wild ducks that were “winged” and fell on the farther side of a stream. A retriever tried to bring both of them at once, but could not do it. Although never before known to ruf fle a feather of a wounded bird, she then deliberately killed one, brought over the live one, and returned for the dead bird. Elephants, of course, are famous for their sagacity, and when they are em ployed as decoys for the capture of wild mem bers of the species it is apparent that they know well enough what they are doing when they deceive their un tamed brethren. Indian ele phants are also well known to break, branches off the trees and use them for driv ing away flies./ Animals, too, have their ideas about property, as those know who have watched a dog with a bone or birds with their nests. This is also a common characteris tic with monkeys, and Dar win tells of one in the Lon don Zoo which had weak teeth and was in the habit of breaking open nuts with a stone. After using the stone it always hid it in the straw, and would not let any othei monkey touch it. Baboons have been observed to pro tect themselves from the heat of the sun by putting straw mats over their heads Language is supposed by many people to be one of the chief distinctions between man and the lower animals, but many animals are cap able of expressing their de sires and emotions by dif ferent sounds, and possibly enough these constitute the rudiments of language. Dogs bark in different ways to express different things, and monkeys make many differ ent sounds which rouse in other monkeys the emotions they are intended to portray. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, believed that dogs could be taught to speak, and claimed that a Skye terrier he had was able to say and under stand a few words; and Dar win has stated that, as re gards articulate sounds, dogs understand marly words and short sentences, although they cannot utter a single word, and that in this res pect they are at the, same August 1968 45 age o£ development as in fants between the ages of ten and twelve months. Mr. Charles Cottar, writing in Forest and Stream, tells of keeping some Colobus monkeys in captivity, and of becoming convinced of their ability not only to reason but to talk with one another. They were kept in a struc ture made of poultry wire, and one of them, a half grown female, learned to break the wire by continual ly twisting it with her hands. She made an opening large enough to creep through, but finding no forest at hand, stayed among the bushes and crept back into the enclosure at night. Fi nally she refused to come back, and a snare was set for her, consisting of a bent pole, a string, and a springing device as used by the natives for the purpose. It was bait ed with a piece of green corn. It worked twice — and that was all. For, after being twice caught by the hand, the monkey would reach below the rope, turn the loop carefully asi'de, seize the corn, and running to the top of the cage would display as much knowing mischief as a spoiled child. When several other members of the same tribe were brought from the woods, some six months later, and put it in the same cage, the monkey that had learned to break the wire immediately taught the trick to the new comers. It appears to be the case that animals, especially in their higher forms, are en dowed with very similar in stincts, emotions, intuitions, and senses *to those of man, and intelligence and reason ing power seem to result from the combination and interplay of these with one another. The more the ani mal advances the more com plex these become. And, indeed, man’s own under standing is supposed to trace its origin to some such hum ble beginnings. — By F. B. M. Clark, condensed from Chambers’s Journal (London) (August, ’30) 46 Panorama

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