Animals are smarter than you think

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December 16, 2011

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Fri Dec 16, 2011, 02:24 AM EST

"Animals can't think, remember or reason."

Wow!

My high school science teacher stated that many years ago. Mr. Kennedy said that those three things separate man from animal.

I argued my thoughts about that statement, but he told me I was wrong. He said instinct is different than thought and animals rely entirely on instinct.

I agree with part of his philosophy. Animals live most of their lives relying on instinct. Those huge flocks of geese that fly south in the winter don't swim around on some northern lake and say to one another, "Don't you think we should take off tomorrow and try to get to that little corn field down near the Chesapeake by the weekend?"

No. Something triggers the urge to head south before the snow is too deep and their feet get cold. They stop on the same bodies of water year after year unless blown off course by some strong, strange wind.

That's instinct. But animals do think and they do remember.

There's an apple tree behind our barn that's protected from the weather. I can't remember a year it didn't have a multitude of apples. Every year, deer come and feed there nightly until the fruit is gone. Generations of deer have come, bringing their young to enjoy the apples when the other trees on the hill are bare.

Do you think these animals remember where they get a meal?

Over the years, I have taught many a small buck that there is danger in the tree tops. As they would wander by my tree stand, I'd speak to them. "Hey! There are hunters up here. Somebody might shoot you."

A week or so later, I watched that same little spike horn walk through that stand of oaks and look up to see if I was still up there. Did he remember that episode?

I was hunting bears in New Brunswick, Canada, and had been sitting over a bait for several evenings waiting for a huge bear to come in. One evening, I took a climbing tree stand and moved to the other side of the clearing.

I watched a bear cautiously approach off to my right. He got down wind of the stand and let his nose survey the area.

With the wind in my favor, I watched as he snuck through the brush. As he approached the tree stand, he looked up to see if I was there. Satisfied that it was safe, the bear continued on to the bait. He was just a youngster, but he had learned that hunters hide in trees.

If you have a dog, you know how smart they can be. Our old lab, Tucker, has quite a vocabulary. It got to the point that we had to spell things so he didn't understand. That only worked for a short while, though, because he learned to spell. Now he's totally deaf, but he's managed to learn sign language. That's right; he learned.

There's a famous bear in the Adirondack High Peaks with a yellow tag in each ear. She is aptly called (you guessed it), Yellow Yellow.

She successfully has figured out how to open bear-proof canisters to get food. One plastic canister proclaimed by the National Forest Service as the best was opened by her in 15 minutes _ without breaking it. She tried several things and then, using tooth and claw, pushed the tabs and turned the top off. She's one smart bear who can think, remember and reason.

I sometimes think animals are far smarter than we are. I've spent a lifetime watching animals and studying their behavior. Never doubt the wisdom of a smart, old buck, a magnificent bull elk or a big, old black bear.

There's an old saying: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

Hog wash! Dogs do what we want until they have us trained.

Why do you think they call it a dog's life?

Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. Email him at robrockway@hotmail.com.