Smartest Animals on the Planet: Extraordinary Tales of the Natural World's Cleverest Creatures »

Sally Boysen, PhD, is internationally recognized for her work in chimpanzee cognition. She is currently a consulting editor for the Journal of Comparative Psychology, and her research has been featured on the PBS series NOVA and on BBC Horizons.

Deborah Custance, PhD, has conducted research on social learning in several species of primates and published papers in international journals.

How animals communicate and learn -- sometimes better than humans do, actually.

This fascinating book, written by a world authority on animal intelligence, brings together the cumulative research on the comparative intelligence levels of nonhuman "smart" species. Sally Boysen reveals how these intelligent animals communicate, learn behavior, show feelings and emotions and, for some species, how they use tools, count and sometimes pick up a foreign language.

Fully illustrated with photographs and step-by-step graphics, the book draws on data from historical and current experiments and observations to examine intelligence in the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans) and in a surprising list of other species, including sea otters, eagles, elephants, dolphins, birds, bees, beetles, rats, raccoons and parrots.

The book's chapters are:

• Comparing Animal Skills and Intelligence
• Animal Tool Use
• Communication in Animals
• Imitation and Social Learning
• Social Cognition and Emotion
• Self-recognition and Awareness
• Numerical Abilities in Animals
• Animals and Human Nonverbal Language.

The Smartest Animals on the Planet is a beautiful, authoritative and up-to-date presentation on the remarkable intelligence of the animal kingdom.

Publishers Weekly

The first studies of animal intelligence focused on chimps, gorillas and orangutans, simply because humans assumed intelligence was the province of higher primates; other species, it was thought, acted through instinct. Then twentieth century field biologists began reporting observations of problem-solving in many other species: bees dancing to convey pollen locations, whales using complex sounds to communicate across entire ocean basins, crows using sticks to pull grubs from tree bark, salamanders differentiating between smaller and larger food sources. Each animal is placed into one of seven categories-tool making and use, communication, learned social behaviors, individual self-awareness, numerical ability, language learning and group cooperation/mutual protection-though they clearly overlap, showing how animals place on different axes of intelligence (a dolphin exhibits tool use and learned culture skills when showing her pup how to fish with a sponge). Vibrant color photographs and diagrams illustrate species and behavioral sequences like the different facial cues of baboons (the "kings of expression"). Clearly-written text is aimed primarily at adults, but suitable for middle school and advanced elementary school students (with help from the included glossary). An ideal family gift, this should also find use in the classroom.
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Foreword

About this book

Introduction

Chapter One: Using Tools

• Woodpecker finches probe with sticks


• New Caledonian crows hook a treat


• Captive crows show talent for tool use


• Sea otters hammer their way to a meal


• Sea sponges provide padded protection


• Naked mole-rats protect their assests


• Why elephants use switches


• The wild chimp's toolkit


• Use of spears by wild chimpanzees


• Sumatrans get to grips with tools


• Wild gorillas stun researchers


• Wild capuchins adapt tool use to suit their environment


• Innovations with tools in captive capuchins


• Tool use in captive chimps
  
  

Chapter Two: Communication

• Dance language of honeybees


• Ground squirrels look out for their own


• Wild vervet monkey "smart" alarms


• Baboons: kings of expression


• Diana monkeys spread the news


• Wild chimpazees: masters of communication


• Signature whistles in dolphins


• Whales can really carry a tune


• Can elephants hear through their feet?
  
  

Chapter Three: Imitation and Social Learning

• Monkey see, monkey do?


• Jungle copy cats


• Birdbrained is best


• The great ape debate


• Ape culture?


• Chapter Four:


• Mirror Self-Recognition


• Chimps use mirrors like we do - to see how they look


• Dolphins give themselves admiring glances


• It's rude to stare - gorillas don't give mirrors a second glance


• Elephants get the idea - with a very big mirror
  
  

Chapter Five: Numerical Abilities

• The case of "Clever Hans"


• You can count on an ant to find its way home


• Lions show roar talent


• Birds: the number crunchers


• Rats that can count


• Salamanders prefer more


• Young chimps learn to count
  
  

Chapter Six: Animal Language Studies

• Can you really teach a chimp to speak?
• How a chimp learned sign language
• Chimps and humans: do two great brains think alike?
• Ask a dolphin and you'll get the right answer
• Koko, the only gorillas to learn sign language
• Is he smart, or just parroting what he's heard?
• A young chimp keeps her answers in order
• An orangutan learns to sign
• Rocky, the sea lion with a logical approach
  
  

Chapter Seven: Cooperation and Altruism

• "I'll scratch your back now, if you'll scratch my back later"
• Chimps "kiss and make up" after a fight
• Yawn and the world yawns with you - empathetic responses
• A dog's dinner is a shared affair
• Working together - is it teamwork or just a bunch of animals?
• Monkeys are quick to spot an unfair deal

Glossary

Index

Credits