ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Tyler Bass
March 22, 2015
Moritz’s genius at solving this puzzle is launching him and his German owner to aww-ful notoriety. The speed with which he completes the puzzle, encouraged by food, highlights the abilities of his highly intelligent and social species. His charm really comes through in how, after placing each piece, he yanks its rope to ensure a snug fit. That’s perfectionism.
It’s still unclear whether pigs can pass the mirror test: the ability of animals to recognize themselves in reflections, and a standard of intelligence that mammalian wunderkind like apes and dolphins can demonstrate. Studies suggest that pigs assess each other’s prowess for finding food, and will lean on each other for guidance in locating resources, or even try to thwart each other in competition for grub.
Demonstrations like this evoke the tempting question of whether pigs are smarter than dogs, creatures much of the world wouldn’t dream of eating. Some opponents of eating animal like pigs, among them some devout vegans, say these demonstrations of intelligence mean that we shouldn’t eat other animals. Intelligence, say opponents, evinces a greater aptitude to feel pain; but ironically enough even that attitude may be anthropocentric, or catering mostly to humans.
Marc Bekoff wrote for Psychology Today: “Much comparative research still needs to be done before any stipulative claims can be made about how an individual’s cognitive abilities can be used to influence decisions about how she or he should be treated. More individuals from diverse species whose lives, sensory worlds, motor abilities and nervous systems are different from those of animals with whom we identify most readily or with whom we are the most familiar, need to be studied.â€
Incidentally, a better evolutionary comparison for pigs than dogs is to whales – and hippos, which are extremely dangerous creatures.
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