Smart new book takes an axe to the myth of human exceptionalism

 

Image courtesy of Simone Rotella

Joel Kontinen

Christine Webb's provocative and moving book The Arrogant Ape explores our unjustifiable sense of superiority in the living world, laying out the evidence against it, says Elle Hunt.

Tests of chimps’ intelligence often take place in labs, not in the wild or in sanctuaries like this one.

In the beginning, God made man in his image, granting him dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

According to evolution, most people don’t look to the Bible to understand the world and our place in it, yet this view of humans as superior to nature and non-human life is sneakily persistent.

The characteristics said tao distinguish humans and justify our dominance – including the ability to reason, use tools, feel pain, act morally – aren’t exclusively human, it seems. Chimps, crows and others show nuanced intelligence, have complex social bonds and use tools; fish and crustaceans feel pain; bees are cultural beings; even plants may have senses akin to ours.

But it seems that animals have their traits, which does not make them humans. They create things that look like they tools for making you well.

Apes are not the only animals that can make human like tools. For instance, crows do the same.

 Source:

Elle Hunt 2025 Why non-human culture should change how we see nature | New Scientist 12 November 

Crows understand the concept of zero

 

Image courtesy of American Crow - Singing Sands, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada -- 2007 June, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Joel Kontinen

Crows may have bird-brains, but the feathered creatures can understand  the highly abstract concept of zero, a new research suggests. 

But having  bird brains does not mean  they are stupid.

”In the new study, published June 2 in The Journal of Neuroscience, the team ran experiments with two male carrion crows (Corvus corone), during which the birds sat on a wooden perch and interacted with a computer monitor in front of them. In each trial, a grey screen containing zero to four black dots popped up in front of the crows; this "sample" image was followed by a "test" image containing either the same or a different number of dots. “

 

 The crows were able to know the difference between two and three and also zero.

Source: 

Lanese.  Nicoletta. 2021. Crows understand the 'concept of zero' (despite their bird brains) Live Science 15 June. 

 

A Big Surprise For Evolution: Crows Are Smarter Than Great Apes

New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Image courtesy of John Gerrard Keulemans, Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Crows are surprisingly clever. In spite of their relatively small brains, they are more innovative in their use of tools than the great apes. This is a dilemma for Darwinians since according to the evolution-based story, as our closest living relatives chimpanzees should be cleverer than birds.

Recently, a team at the University of Oxford observed New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) living in aviaries. The researchers gave the crows different kinds of objects. Seeing a potentially dangerous object, the birds would first touch it with a tool (a stick) until they would use their beak.

Research has shown that crows will use one tool to access another one that will enable them to use a third tool.

Crows are innovative tool users in other ways, also:




Source:

Physorg.com. 18 January 2011.