It's the one question that scientists and researchers are longing to find out since the dawn of man; Are animals as mentally developed as the Human Specie? It's a hard question. Everyday we hear animals 'chirping', 'barking' or 'mooing' which is clearly a from of communication, but is it as developed as our languages? Just because we as Humans only here one type of noise coming from the specie, doesn't exactly mean their vocabulary is as limited as a "Magic 8-Ball". Take for instance when you listen to a group of, or even two birds chirping accross the branches with one and other; every pitch, volume and sound that shoots out from their beaks' is usually different. It just makes me wonder if they are actualy having a civilized conversation. For all we know they could be chatting about how fun it was to shit all over the front windscreen of a Ferrarri, or it could just boil down to what the majority of what our specie actually think; in which their conversation roughly translates to "Branch... Nest... I need a shit...".
We all know that animals, like us, build homes, eat food, steal, fight and probably lie through their teeth like another specie I know quite well of... But if I am honest, there is a lot more we somehow need to learn about the evolution that according to science, is how we developed. For example, how is it that scientist are able to tell that Kanines are colourblind, but can't even develop anything close to how they actually communicate. Dolphins are classed as one of the most intellegent specie on the planet and there are almost forty types of the mammal. But how is it that we have developed from something of those charastics? Or have they evolved from us? Maybe we are the less advanced specie on the planet; I mean we are not the most efficient group of mammals on the planet. We drive vehicles and pollute the atmostphere - Dolphins glide effortlessly through the ocean current eating their breakfast as they travel to what I presume to be work. We spend mass amounts of the debt we call a currency on packaging and cooking food - Bears go out their front garden and butcher their neighbour for tea. Aparently eating raw meat is actually better for us anyway, so as that pompus Meerkat catchphrases, "Simples".
"While humans have had differing views of animal emotion, the scientific examination of animal emotion has led to little information beyond a recognition that animals have the capacity for pain and fear, and such responses as are needed for survival." - Wikipedia
For me, the way species other than human live their lives is completely perfect. Although I couldn't live without a mobile phone or the internet, life was perfectly fine without them. Animals are just a really efficient form of our race, and other than that, I believe that we are being pushed away from what we were actually put on this planet to do. We were not 'created' to go to work, lie, cheat, or materialise anything. We were put on earth for a reason, and until people wake up from the shallow opinion that we are on this Earth 'because we are', then we are never going to continue evolving as a specie and find out our true paths.
Believe it or not, watching Finding Nemo last night has clearly had a great impact on my train of thought... So well done Pixar! I have obviously thought about this before, somehow sharing the emotion of losing a son with a family of Clownfish suddenly made those thoughts click again. But how is that, that we could actually going abut reseaching this a lot more in depth? What we need to do is plant our so called debts into researching the closest thing to our race and learning how they or we can adapt. We see human emotions and a form of communication, so why couldn't we somehow work from that. We know for instance dogs wag their tail to show emotion (aparently contentness), but how do we don't know that is a reaction of something else... maybe it just seems like happiness. For example when a human smiles, it doesn't always mean they are happy; Smiling can be related to nervousness and embarassment also. But the main question is do animals express facial emotions such as a smile or frown? Are their reactions such as fright or love as complicated as ours? Another one of the worls most complicated subjects opinionated,
Caolan McClafferty
