The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal ObservationsHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Science
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Animal behavior
In order to express many opinions in a small amount of space, we
submit a table of estimates and summaries, covering a few
mammalian species that are representative of many. But, try as
they will, it is not likely that any two animal men will set down
the same estimates. It all depends upon the wealth or the poverty
of first-hand, eye-witness evidence. When we enter the field of
evidence that must stand in quotation marks, we cease to know
where we will come out. We desire to state that nearly all of the
figures in the attached table of estimates are based upon the
author's own observations, made during a period of more than
forty years of ups and downs with wild animals. ESTIMATES OF THE
COMPARATIVE INTELLIGENCE AND ABILITY OF CERTAIN CONSPICUOUS WILD
ANIMALS, BASED UPON KNOWN PERFORMANCES, OR THE ABSENCE OF THEM.
[Footnote: To the author, correspondence regarding the reasons for
these estimates is impossible.]
[beginning of chart]
Perfection in all=100 [list of categories below are written
vertically above the columns, with the last column unnamed and
representing a total score of animal intelligence/1000]
Hereditary Knowledge Perceptive Faculties Original Thought Memory
Reason Receptivity in Training Efficiency in Execution Nervous
Energy Keenness of the Senses Use of the Voice
Primates
Chimpanzee . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 100 75 100 100 100 100 50 925
Orang-Utan . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 75 100 75 100 75 100 25 850
Gorilla. . . . . . . . . . . . .50 50 50 50 75 25 25 50 100 25 500
Ungulates
Indian Elephant . . . . . .100 100 100 100 100 100 100 75 50 25 850
Rhinoceros. . . . . . . . .25 25 25 25 25 0 0 25 25 0 175
Giraffe . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 25 25 25 25 25 0 25 100 0 300
White-Tailed Deer . . .100 100 100 25 50 0 0 100 100 0 575
Big-Horn Sheep . . . . . .100 100 50 25 50 0 0 100 100 0 525
Mountain Goat. . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100 0 0 100 100 0 625
Domestic Horse. . . . . .100 100 100 75 75 75 75 100 100 50 850
Carnivores
Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 50 75 50 75 50 100 100 25 725
Tiger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 75 50 50 50 25 25 100 100 0 575
Grizzly Bear . . . . . . . . .100 100 50 25 50 75 50 75 100 25 725
Brown Bear (European)100 100 50 25 50 75 50 75 100 25 650
Gray Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . 100 100 100 25 75 00 100 100 25 625
Coyote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 75 50 25 50 0 0 75 100 25 500
Red Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 100 50 75 100 0 0 100 100 25 650
Domestic Dog . . . . . . . . .50 100 75 75 75 75 100 100 100 100 850
Wolverine . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100 0 75 100 100 0 700
Beaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100 0 100 100 100 0 725
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