Are primates really that smart?

[TheTypist]

We've all heard what they say on the Discovery Channel. There's all that stuff about the monkeys being so smart, and how we should give more credit to our intelligent cousins the apes, and how chimps are more like humans than most humans like to admit.

I do admit that primates show more characteristics that we can relate to ourselves than most animals. And they do have interesting social lives. But truly, their lives are just big soap operas. Why do we try to glorify them?

Is it just my pride as a human?

[SlankyDaManky]

How can a primate AND my cousin Steven be my cousin.

I think your a fraud.

[Jam930]

We ARE primates.

[JustJono]

Yes, technically, we're a species of primate.

[Jam930]

My dog is pretty smart. I think some dogs are smarter than chimpazees... They just understand human emotions better I would think.

Chimps just look stupid.



Vs




I dunno... I doubt anyone in this forum knows much about the intelligence of chimpazees.

[LEGO]

Border Collies can have the IQ of small children (I know IQ doesn't necessarily increase w/ age, maybe I should say brainpower)

But actually, whales/dolphins and those types of ocean aminals are just as if not smarter than the chimps.

[alvask8er]

I dont know how we gorlify them, but they are closest to us than anything else, so we can relate to them more. But i thought a recent study showed that sharks are actully smarter than dolphins.

Chimps just look stupid.

I dont know about you or anyone else, but if you really look at any animal, it starts to lose its credibilty. I watched my cat for a while. Noticed the tail. After a whiile, it got really weird looking and i had to go do somthing else. Then i looked at my dog. Same thing. I noticed how they cant really use their paws too well, but cats can. Watch a person for a while. I watched someone watch tv. Eyes moving all about, changing facial expressions, yet still body. Repetition seems to be no good for certain things, like words, say one word over and over and it starts to not make sense.

[Thedu]

We ARE primates.

That's what I was gonna say :P

[Jam930]

I dont know how we gorlify them, but they are closest to us than anything else, so we can relate to them more. But i thought a recent study showed that sharks are actully smarter than dolphins.

...that's not even true. Check your sources. Plus. what kind of shark?

Sharks are fish... their brain has almost no intellectual function. Dolphins are intelligent mammals. No contest.

[HeLGeN-X]

I dont know how we gorlify them, but they are closest to us than anything else, so we can relate to them more. But i thought a recent study showed that sharks are actully smarter than dolphins.

...that's not even true. Check your sources. Plus. what kind of shark?

Sharks are fish... their brain has almost no intellectual function. Dolphins are intelligent mammals. No contest.

Who cares? They are both stupider than monkies (which are also stupid.)

[Chrissi]

Do you know that dolphins are stupider than monkies?

I love how smart and playful and sexual dolphins are. I'd love to be a dolphin.

[HeLGeN-X]

I love how smart and playful and sexual dolphins are. I'd love to be a dolphin.

Just when I thought I heard everything....
And yeah, monkies are smarter than Dolphins. If I'm not mistaken, I think Dolphins only respond to ultrasound waves or something?... then you can communicate with them. Some highly trained monkies do sign language, and fully understand how to read and write the language they have learned. Dolphins do not have hands.

[DracIV]

Helgen . . . that is the stupidest comment I have ever heard. You just claimed that dolphins are stupider because they don't have hands. . . and hands have absolutely nothing to do with intelligence.

[Chrissi]

Dolphins can learn languages with pictures on blocks or something...

I saw it a long time ago... I forget what it was about. But rest assured that dolphins are very intelligent creatures.

[brutisgrr]

The problem is, here, that dolphins are smarter than chimps simply because they are farther up the evolutionairy chain. Chimps can evolve further, and therefore become smarter, while dolphins will always be the same, just because they have absolutely no reason to evolve. But as of right now, They are both extremely intelligent for instinct based life forms.

And helgen has his facts mixed up. Hands lead to technology (cars, buildings, etc.). Any animal can be intelligent/sentient(self-aware) as long as they have complicated enough brain-matter

And sharks are instinct-driven fiends of the deep. Dunno where you got they were intelligent.