AboutJonathan Wright Expertise I can answer questions about wild mammals, as well as other wild animals. I can also answer questions on extinct animals and zoos.
PLEASE DON'T SEND ME ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT PETS. IF YOU ARE REALLY WORRIED, YOU SHOULD CONTACT A VETERINARIAN. PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT UNPAID PEOPLE ON ALLEXPERTS ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY AND WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ADVICE THE MOMENT YOUR ANIMAL GETS ILL. Find out how to look after a pet before you get it. It is unfair to keep an animal in inappropriate conditions and give it the wrong food. If you can't keep an animal in good conditions, please don't bring it into your home. I'm not a vet and I don't have any expertise in animal medicine and care. I don't agree with people taking animals out of the wild and then expecting other people to give free advice on how to look after them. It is cruel to take animals away from their parents, who are able to look after the babies and may look for them, while putting their other babies at risk. You may need a licence to look after some animals. You may be breaking the law by keeping wild animals; please check with a local wildlife organisation.
IF YOU FIND AN INJURED ANIMAL, PLEASE CONTACT A WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN OR CHARITY AND LET TRAINED STAFF LOOK AFTER THE ANIMAL. DO NOT TRY TO LOOK AFTER AN INJURED ANIMAL IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
Please do not remove eggs from nests. The mother birds will know the right temperature for the eggs and will not sit on them if the temperature is warm enough for them to develop naturally. It is illegal to remove eggs of some species and, unless you have an incubator or a broody hen, the egg may not develop. If you are allowed to touch the eggs, you can candle them (check details on websites) to see if the eggs are fertile. If the eggs are not fertile, they will not hatch.
I do not agree with fights between different animals. Please do not ask me questions about them.
Experience I have a zoology degree and have been interested in animals since I was two years old. I am a zoo volunteer at London Zoo. I have appeared on a BBC Radio Quiz, 'Wildbrain'.
Organizations World Wide Fund for Nature. Zoological Society of London. London Bat Group.
Publications Newsletters of London Zoo volunteers and the London Bat Group
Education/Credentials BSC degree in Zoology. 'A' levels in Zoology and Chemistry. 'O' Level in Biology.
Question Hello,
I've been researching Comparative Animal intelligence tests.
I have a question, and would be greatly obliged if you could help me.
1.In a restricted space (like a Studio) are there any simple tests you could suggest, where animals from different species could 'compete' in order to compare intelligence levels.
These could be related to Problem Solving, Memory, Navigation, Counting, Using Tools.
A list of intelligent animals that will participate in the tests are
Chimpanzee
Border Collie Dog
Cat
Dolphin
Horse
Orang-utan
Elephant
Pig
Cow
Parrot
Octopus
Thanks a lot
Answer Dear Ashvin
Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I don't think you could create a fair intelligence test involving these species.
In fact, a fair intelligence test has yet to be created for people. When I was younger, IQ tests were more respected, but then doubts crept in. Is it fair to test in English if some candidates cannot speak English? How do you explain series of figures and determine that each question is understood by all the candidates? Does each question only have one answer or do some have more than one, according to the way a candidate understands the question?
If these problems haven't been worked out adequately for humans, I can't see how they could be worked out for other animals. You could compare the chimpanzee and orang-utan, but how would you determine which was more intelligent? Would you take into account that the chimpanzee tends to be more extraverted than the orang-utan? Statistically, you wouldn't be able to extrapolate the results from one or two apes from each type to say that chimpanzees were better at some tasks, while orang-utans were better at others.
Dolphins have very good navigation skills, but would you have enough water in your studio to test this? Comparing species where some are in water and some are on land would create variables that could affect the results unfairly.
When it comes to most tasks, I'd suggest that the cow would be at a disadvantage, due to its hooves. If it isn't built to do certain tasks, I'd suggest that it would rank poorly, unless you could find a way to provide a fair test.
All in all, I can't really see the point of the experiment. I don't think you could devise a system that would test each animal the same or that would determine how much of a skill was due to instinct and how much to intelligence. Even if you came up with a set of figures, extrapolating the results to all the individuals of a species would be statistically invalid. Ultimately, you'd be comparing individuals and the results may not reflect differences between species.
