7 of the Smarts Animals On Earth

Humans may have the power of consciousness, but we are not the lonely smart beings on the planet. Some animals are actually quite smart, even when you least expect them to be. Scientist noticed that animals are also capable of solving problems, giving them a lot of edge in the wild.

Here are some of the smartest animals.

Bees

According to researchers, bees have a sort of kaleidoscopic memory d the flowers they see in the environment, which helps them figure out which flowers are the best to feed on. They also self-medicate inside their hives. They’re also great engineers, creating complex hives with honeycomb structures that we even use as an inspiration for a number of buildings.

Octopus

They might have squishy tentacles, but don’t let these fool you. Octopuses are very intelligent animals. They spread cultural information, communicate through colors, flashing, and patters, and even mimic others. Octopuses also have an advanced navigational abilities and spatial learning capacity. Their tentacles act like fingers that can manipulate objects.

Elephants

The largest mammal on land also has highly evolved social skills, much like us humans. Elephants are able to shoe loving and compassionate behavior to their family members. They also have amazing memory skills and can remember enemies and friends for 50 years or more. They even have their own form of communication.

Ants

These tiny creatures are absolutely amazing team players. Along with their social skills, the also show a great amount of individual intelligence. They’re great navigators and can remember lengthy routes. Studies on ants show that they know how to care and become altruistic amongst members of their colony.

Dolphins

Dolphins have long interest researchers.  They have a certain communication system, identify themselves in the mirror, and are creative in finding new ways to capture fish. Like humans, they are also very social and work together as a team. Wild dolphins are also known to help herd fish into fishermen nets, expecting their share afterwards.

Crows

Crows are one of the smartest birds on the planet. They are able to use analogies and counting to solve problems. They can take on higher-order, relational-matching task spontaneously. Crows also use tools to finish tasks. Studies have also shown that crows are able to comprehend the Archimedes principle, which successfully abled them to access food by manipulating water levels.

Anole

Lizards don’t really get a lot of recognition for cognitive abilities, but the Anole has impressed researchers with their intelligence.  They demonstrate that they know how to count, and they have advance problem solving and learning skills. They also have extraordinary memories.

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5 of the Smartest Animals on Earth

1 - Dolphins are well-documented as intelligent animals. As Discovery News reports, the dolphin’s large brain is structured for awareness and emotion. In fact, dolphin brains are more structurally complex than humans.

2 - The New York Times reports on researchers who have found that domestic pigs can use mirrors to find their food, and will try to deceive other pigs so they can "hog" more food. They also learn quickly and can do tricks ranging from jumping through hoops to playing video games with joysticks.

3 -Anyone who has ever seen a squirrel dart across a crowded street has wondered if they are aware of the danger. It turns out they may be — but if there is food on the opposite end of the street they may not care. Squirrels are fast learners, according to a recent study from Science Daily, and they learn from their peers. Stealing food is a trick that squirrels pass along.

4 -Cows seem like placid animals merely concerned with chewing their cud. As it turns out, they possess a rich and complex emotional life. The Times reports that scientists have found that cows have friends and enemies. Further, “Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain, fear and even anxiety they worry about the future.”

5 -Bees exhibit what experts call classic swarm intelligence. A single bee may not be smart in the classical sense, but a hive of bees is. As National Geographic reports, swarm intelligence works when no single creature sees “the big picture.” Rather, each works on simple rules in one location. But what happens when bees disagree? It turns out that they can hold a democratic “dance-off” to make a hive decision.

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Giant Hornets Take on Honey Bees

During spring, when all the lovely flower bloom, you can also expect to see a lot of flying friendly insects like bees. They’re a big help when it comes to pollinating flowers and they play a vital part in any Eco-system. Not a lot of other insects are aggressive when it comes to bees, but one certain specie really takes their aggression on them to a different level.

The Japanese giant hornet, an Asian giant hornet subspecies that’s native to Japan, is one of the biggest hornet species around. They can reach up to 2 inches when fully grown and have stingers that can grow to about a quarter-inch long. They’re also fast, reaching a flying speed of 25 mph. what makes these hornets even more dangerous and scary is that they can inject venom which is so strong that I can dissolve human flesh and damage our nervous system. People in japan tend to keep away from these hornets, but unfortunately, they’re drawn to honey bees which some of the locals keep.

They commonly take on a hive of European honey bees, no matter how outnumbered they are. Japanese farmers have taken care of European honey bee hives and harvest their honey, but these giant hornets have become a threat to the bees and to the community as well. When a hornet discovers a honey bee hive, it them marks it with a certain pheromones, signaling other hornets to approach the hive. The team of hornets then attacks the bees by biting their heads off, then take the honey for themselves.

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Pesticides - bee and bird killer!

A new study led by researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands, has suggested that areas with high concentrations of crop pesticides or neonicotinoids have killed bee colonies and birds.

A study from 2003 to 2010 has observed that areas with great concentration of the said pesticides have reduced the number of barn swallows, tree sparrow, and common starlings of up to 3.5 percent yearly. This will result in harmful effects to our ecosystem which could lead to chain reactions that will indirectly affect us humans in the near future.

The pesticide is now banned for use in Europe, but is still used widely in the US and around the world. As of now, chemists are trying to find a better option to prevent future crisis.

Have you thought of ways to solve this problem? What better alternatives do you think farmers should use for their crops?

Source here.

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Bee brains challenge view that larger brains are superior at understanding conceptual relationships

Phys.org) —The humble honeybee may not seem very intelligent at first sight, but recent research has shown that it possesses a surprising degree of sophistication that is not expected in an insect brain. Specifically, the honeybee can understand conceptual relationships such as "same/different" and "above/below" that rely on relationships between objects rather than simply the physical features of objects.

In primates, this ability to understand conceptual relationships is attributed to neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, honeybees don't have PFCs. Their brains are so small and lacking in complex brain structures that scientists have traditionally thought that the ability to understand conceptual relationships was beyond them.

Source: Here

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Dino impact also destroyed bees, says study

Scientists say there was a widespread extinction of bees 66 million years ago, at the same time as the event that killed off the dinosaurs.

The demise of the dinosaurs was almost certainly the result of an asteroid or comet hitting Earth.

Source: Here

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Bee Navigation Revealed

“We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers, and dress like this!” This famous line of Barry B. Benson from the Bee Movie helped us change everything we think about bees. The story’s morale proves that even the smallest and seemingly insignificant creature can make one heck of a difference this world. However, there’s another breakthrough discovery that scientists have discovered about bees. Far from its 2007 movie adaptation when those bees navigated like crazy, these social insects that live in hives actually navigate through a hit and miss kind of maneuvering. Bees can fly at about 15mph, roughly 24kph but they actually go from one flower to another, revisiting it many times, before moving on to the next.

In an article from the Huffington post, “a team of researchers from Mary Queen University in London outfitted tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) with miniscule harmonic radio sensors and plastic number tags. They trained the bees to feed on artificial flowers that offered a perch and a sugar solution in the center. The colony’s nest box, positioned in a large field on a British estate, was then situated near five of these artificial flowers. The flowers were arranged in a pentagon shape, with each one 50 meters from the next, which is many times the distance a bumblebee can see. That arrangement prevented the subjects from following each other or spotting the next flower. The “flowers” were watched by motion-sensing video cameras to capture each bee’s feeding. The researchers also chose to complete the experiment in October, when local flowers would have faded and not tempt the bees away from the experimental ones.”

The outcome of the study shows that the routes of the bees were initially longer and more tedious, travelling from one empty flower to another, even revisiting these flowers a couple of times, yet they learned to refine their travel and modify their routes after gaining the exposure and experience. In effect, these bees were able to reduce their flight distance compared to how they first began.

According to the same article, “The learning appeared to be primarily through trial and error. “Each time a bee tried a new route it increased its probability of re-using the new route if it was shorter than the shortest route it had tried before. Otherwise, the new route was abandoned and another route was tested.”

Whether it’s a matter of heuristics or not, it just proves one point: Bee navigation is still complex because they are able to gain experience from flight, thereby decreasing their senseless time buzzing through the air. These findings may lead to a new cognitive laurel for these small social insects, something that we thought only larger-brained mammals are capable of.

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Bee Wallpapers

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Bees

Bees and their link with honey were the essential plot elements of the 2008 animated feature, Bee Movie, the first feature length movie which involved Jerry Seinfeld since the finale of the hit NBC sitcom, Seinfeld.

Telling the story of how a bee managed to sue human beings because of their consumption of honey, Bee Movie had been met with conflicting reviews upon its release, with some critics loathing it as others were just so-so and okay with it.

But critical acclaim and Hollywood box office hit ratings aside, Bee Movie did well in telling the essential roles bees have in the natural balance and ecologic cycle of nature, providing an in depth look at how much impact their making of honey has with the order of things.

Bees kept as “pets”

Many beekeepers don’t really consider bees as “pets”, not in the sense over how one would keep a dog or a cat as a pet.

For one, it is practically impossible to keep one bee as a pet, given that bees are instinctively social insects. This means that if you intend to keep bees, you will have to setup a space where a colony can thrive, with worker bees, a queen bee and everything else a colony requires.

The nice thing about keeping a colony of bees is that you don’t have to “feed” them since they can find and make their own food. In fact, you could even have a share of the honey which bees make, just make sure that you leave enough for the colony to survive.

There’s also the thing about bees and their stings, and it pays to have some working knowledge over the aggression levels of bees, especially when talking about keeping a colony. Keeping bees may appear to be easy, but their upkeep can be challenging, especially when they are kept in urban areas.

All in all, though bees are fascinating creatures to keep as “pets”, they’re not exactly as easy as having a cat or dog around in the house.

Bee Pictures

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