About birds intelligence

[Pajarita]

Two new studies on birds brains and they both show the same thing: birds are much more intelligent than we ever thought AND they think like humans!!!! These are all articles based on the same two new studies that found that, contrary to what has been thought for 150 years, birds do have a neocortex and that it is linked to conscious thought (the organization of the cells follow the same pattern as humans)! AHA! What we have been saying all along!!! Some articles are more complex than others so I decided to post a couple:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09 ... self-aware

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases ... 092520.php

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... /1567.full

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-conscious ... rains.html

[birdybravil]

Does that mean they are the most intelligent living being after humans and more intelligent than Dogs?

[Pajarita]

No, it doesn't mean that. Parrots are much more intelligent than dogs but then that is no great feat because dogs lost intelligence when they became domesticated leaving wolves smarter than them... dogs are actually not that smart - sheesh, pigs are smarter than dogs! Dogs are highly trainable which most people confuse with intelligence even though it's a completely different thing. I don't think science has the studies yet (maybe not even the tools) to actually determine which species is the most intelligent after man but everything we have so far (and I say 'so far' because the order of the list has changed a lot lately as we learn more about different species) points to great apes being the smarter with the chimpanzee at the top of the list but marine mammals (dolphins, whales), elephants, octopi, corvids and parrots are smarter than dogs.

For over 1,500 years, we lived under a strict religious Judeo-Christian doctrine that said that only humans had 'soul' and intelligence and that derailed any study that anybody would have wanted to do (it was heresy to even consider the notion) but, as we 'grew' and learned more, we started to put things into a more realistic perspective, expanding our intellectual horizons and started realizing that animals were not that different from us. And this allowed for studies that started debunking accepted tenets. First it was the notion that animals were little automatons that did not even feel pain - believe it or not, animals were cut open alive without anesthesia and the anti-vivisection movement did not even start until late in the 1800's with the US Animal Welfare Act prohibiting the unnecessary suffering of animals passing only in 1966. Once we kind of 'mastered' the physical part of the animal species (anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc) we started paying attention to their minds but it did not really 'take off' until the mid 60's so, as you can see the whole 'animal intelligence' thing is actually VERY new and we still have A LOT to learn. But we will there - if we don't kill the Earth and ourselves first.