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What’s The Smartest Bug In The World?


Still Waters

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The biggest problem with asking about animal intelligence is defining what we even mean by “intelligence.” The animals generally thought of as smartest—among them the great apes, dolphins, and the octopus—are believed to be intelligent because they demonstrate some of the behaviors that we associate with our own superiority as humans.

Insects are a particularly difficult group of animals to study for these traits, because they’re just so different from us.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/i-asked-leading-entomologists-whats-the-smartest-bug-in-the-world

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Oh wow, I had no idea that some insects have sub-brains in different parts of their bodies. That explains a lot of things. And no surprise that the honey bee ranks up there in terms of smarts. Very interesting and informative article, thanks for posting it.

 

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A very nice and interesting article to read. I never knew about the "waggle dance", and the fact that bees use that type of communication to tell other bees in the hive the location of a flower or source of food. It is more amazing because they actually use symbols and no other animal apart from us can do that. Lovely article. Thanks.

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I'm not so sure about only bees and humans being able to use symbolic communication. Take a look here: https://smartdogs.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/symbolic-understanding-in-dogs/

Now, here's where things get interesting. I've seen one herding dog 'teach' another herding dog the symbolic communication being used by him and his human. Now, it may not be the same exact skill set but it does raise some interesting questions regarding canine intelligence.

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5 minutes ago, Lilly said:

I'm not so sure about only bees and humans being able to use symbolic communication. Take a look here: https://smartdogs.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/symbolic-understanding-in-dogs/

Now, here's where things get interesting. I've seen one herding dog 'teach' another herding dog the symbolic communication being used by him and his human. Now, it may not be the same exact skill set but it does raise some interesting questions regarding canine intelligence.

I've always known that canines are extremely intelligent animals, but I never thought that they are capable of using symbolic communication. That's what it stated in the article nevertheless, that only humans and bees can communicate using symbols. I guess there could be a bit of hassle here and there. Yeah, it's not exactly the same skill set if we were to compare it to the honey bees, but it is something that sparks my interest.

We can't really ignore the fact that canines are really intelligent animals though. Interesting.

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2 hours ago, Still Waters said:

The biggest problem with asking about animal intelligence is defining what we even mean by “intelligence.” The animals generally thought of as smartest—among them the great apes, dolphins, and the octopus—are believed to be intelligent because they demonstrate some of the behaviors that we associate with our own superiority as humans.

Insects are a particularly difficult group of animals to study for these traits, because they’re just so different from us.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/i-asked-leading-entomologists-whats-the-smartest-bug-in-the-world

Testing another species intelligence is tough because we have to see the world as they do. I believe bees are the most intelligent insects and social as well. 

Ants come close although their intelligence is through lesser brains connected to various senses.

I always remember a man telling me, ants are a people too and gave me a Bible verse to read. It did say ants are a people. I thought about how amazing and true. They milk aphids as cows, some farm fungi etc, some make leaf boats, they prepare for winter, have their own societies, they build awesome sky scraper structures of mud, and most interesting they have a human quality to make racist wars on other ant species!

Some bugs are as fascinating as our pets when we tune into the ways they think and communicate. We know other species all have a certain intelligence  when we really know them and not judge them by human standards. All of them have better senses or ones we don't have. A bat could say we are not very intelligent because we lack their radar. We do the same in judging other species by what they lack then what they have to live in their environment.

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Yeah, what dogs can do is different but it is indeed using symbols to communicate. More between humans and dogs but I've seen use of symbolic concepts between dogs as well (most specifically in herding). The ability of bees is really something though, they are flat out amazing little critters.

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