Audio and Video
Sy Montgomery and Guests Discuss Animal Intelligence
November 16, 2011
Summary: What does an octopus think about? What might it feel like to be a bat? During Orion's latest live web event, authors Sy Montgomery, Marc Bekoff, and aquarist Scott Dowd discuss animal intelligence—the subject of Montgomery's feature "Deep Intellect" in the November/December 2011 issue of the magazine. Listen to Montgomery read an excerpt from her piece, and hear the panel share startling stories of animal consciousness and answer listener questions.
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1 rebecca burrill on Nov 16, 2011
I have always experienced animals and trees and other beings on this planet as creatures who i had emotional and communicative exchange with. As a child I was deeply incensed when this experience, this reality was denied and invalidated. I was in my teens when I decided that ‘anthropomorphism’ was the human projection onto all non-human beings the idea that if they were not human beings then they could not have intelligence, empathy and language. And in my adult studies i came to understand that evolutionarily it was these non-human beings who evolved intelligence, empathy and language before we humans got a hold of these traits of being.
2 jean on Nov 16, 2011
Thanks for the great presentation..so glad I can download and play while I walk/run..PBS had a great show on wild turkeys/human interaction..I have to learn to be a better Buddhist so I am not so sad thinking of what we are doing to other creatures bec of Global Warming
3 Bruce Livett on Nov 25, 2011
Higher cogitative ability among invertebrates is also evidenced in predatory cone snails. Having examined them in tanks over a number of years I can attest to their ability to recognize their handlers. For an empathetic account of human interaction with a terrestrial snail I recommend Elisabeth Tova-Bailey’s recent book “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” http://www.elisabethtovabailey.net/
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