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Animal brains are weirder than people think

Surprising animal intelligence facts

The sources do not give detailed chapter-by-chapter excerpts from Stories of Animal Life, but they do show the book sits inside Dr. Charles Frederick Holder’s larger interest in animal behavior and nature study.[3][10]

  • Cats can learn by observing and copying behavior; BBC Earth points to Nora, a cat who watched piano lessons and then tapped the keys herself.[6]
  • Rats are not just scavengers in these sources: Sentient Media says trained rats can identify tuberculosis samples in about 7 minutes, much faster than a human scientist’s full day of testing.[7]
  • Pigs show problem-solving skills in both sources, with Sentient Media noting they can solve problems independently and the BBC Earth piece describing Nellie the pig comparing shapes before deciding whether an object would fit through a hoop.[7][6]
  • Elephants are described as strong communicators and long-memory champs: Sentient Media says they use seismic vibrations to communicate, and the Weebly page says they cooperate, remember, and even mourn their dead.[7][9]
  • Crows get major brain points too, with the Weebly page saying they can remember faces for years and even throw nuts into roads so passing traffic breaks them open.[9]
  • The Weebly page also highlights tool use and planning in chimps, elephants, ants, parrots, and dolphins, including chimpanzees making spears, African grey parrots counting up to six, and leaf-cutter ants running organized fungal farms with antibiotics.[9]
  • A friend-in-need story on the Weebly page describes one tortoise helping another upright companion, framed there as a sign of cooperation and sentience.[9]

If you want the cleanest social-media takeaway: the sources agree that animals can learn, remember, communicate, plan, and solve problems in surprisingly specific ways, even when their intelligence does not look human at all.[6][7][9]


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