Training animals
Animals are very much at the mercy of humans. So they just have to listen to all the social signals of humans in order to survive. That makes them extremely socially oriented compared to humans and makes it difficult to reach an objective estimate about their intelligence. Since whatever they do, they do it for social reasons. And since we are not all knowing, we cannot notice every time we force an animal to a role. It seems that the only way to get objective information about animal intelligence is to study unthreatened wild animals.
As far as I understand, what I have deduced about the ground of human understanding being in using the senses and in moving plus in emotional life, should apply also to animals. I have taught my two rabbits and two budgeriga birds this way and got results which at the first glance seem too amazing to be true. But my animals are not very obedient, so it is difficult to show anything of their undersdtanding. Even their gesture langauge and song which should be easy to record is typically just so clear that I can understand it - clear enough for communication! - but nothing more.
My Favorite Web sites
My rabbits read
Birds' communication
My Favorite Things About Angelfire
Email: KaisaHanneleTervola@webinfo.fi
