“When you lock eyes with them, Ken Balcomb says, “you get the sense that they’re looking at you.It’s a steady gaze. And you feel it. Much more powerful than a dog looking at you. A dog might want your attention. The whales, it’s a different feeling. It’s more like they’re searching inside you. There’s a […]
wildlife
Personality; Not Just for People Anymore
We are watching “elephants,” true enough. But I realize, embarrassed, that I know nothing of how these beings live, of who they are. I scarcely know what it means to be “watching elephants.” Cynthia Moss knows, because she’s been here, watching, for forty years—more time than any other human has ever watched elephants. “When you […]
Why Anthropomorphism Helps Us Understand Animals’ Behavior
Animal awareness: The Big Question of our time? “Is a whale conscious?” As far as I can determine as a scientist, all the evidence indicates that all vertebrates — fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals — appear almost certainly to be capable of sensory experience. In a word, they are conscious. And beyond vertebrates to squid and octopuses and bees […]
What is Intelligence?
Comparing cognition in humans and other animals “When a worm is suddenly illuminated,” Charles Darwin wrote, it “dashes like a rabbit into its burrow.” But if you keep scaring it, the worm stops withdrawing. Such apparent learning suggested to Darwin “the presence of a mind of some kind.” Watching as worms evaluated the suitability of […]
When Animals Teach, It’s Special
Like toolmaking, teaching was once thought to be an exclusive capacity of the human mind. It’s not, but teaching is rare, and teachers are an elite group. “Teaching” requires this: one individual must take time from their own task to demonstrate and instruct and the student must learn a new skill. That’s a tall order. […]
This walrus blog contains plastic
I’m in the high Arctic, far north of Norway at around 78º N latitude in a group of islands known collectively as Svalbard. For a few days I’m a guest on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise while we do a little investigating into the arrival of fishing ships into these waters as the ocean warms […]