suspect that my
goats have me figured and are now trying to outsmart me. Apparently they don't
think it's very hard. Because of the steep hills, hollows and giant boulders
here at Flying Goat Ranch, the goats' territory is not securely fenced. Down by
the road, where there’s little to entice a hungry goat, there's just a wire to
let them know their boundary. If I appear when they are outside this line, they
crawl back under the wire and scoot up the hill. On the other hand, at the upper
end of the ranch, the neighbor's fence is more substantial, but quite old and
full of holes. I've tried to patch them, but the goats always find a new outlet
so they can explore those greener pastures. If I confront them outside of this
fence, they play dumb and wander back down along the fence line toward the front
of our place, as if they don't know how to get back inside. Even if I approach
them sounding the dinner bell (in response to which they normally fly straight
to their food area), they will still take this indirect and ineffective route,
rather than take the quickest way to the food--through the opening of the fence.
I suspect they don't want me to know their secret outlet, So I hide while I ring
the bell and trick them into taking the quickest way back--the fence hole they
came through--and from my hideout I discover their secret opening.
A recent book has collected many stories better
than to demonstrate that animals possess several aspects of intelligent
awareness, including a sense of humor as well as the ability to deceive. The
Parrot's Lament and other true tales of animal intrigue, intelligence, and
ingenuity (Dutton) gets its title from a story about a African Grey parrot,
Bongo Marie. Its owner had a number of birds at her house, including an Amazon
parrot, Paco, that Bongo Marie especially disliked. One day, the owner was
removing a roast Cornish game hen from her oven when Bongo Marie flew over and
shouted, "Oh no! Paco!" in an excited tone. When the owner produced Paco to show
he was still alive, Bongo Marie responded in a disappointed tone, "Oh, no!" and
then broke out into raucous laughter. The author of the book, Eugene Linden, an
award winning science writer, has collected many of his stories from
professional animal handlers (zoo keepers, animal researchers, etc.) and has
included research studies, both of which provide a factual and intellectually
curious tone to balance the natural sentimentality.
Escape stories involve not only animal
cleverness, but also deception. In one case, for example, Fu Manchu, a male
orangutan, baffled zoo keepers by his ability to open a door that allowed
regular escape. Surreptitious observation revealed that he kept hidden in his
cheek a secret tool: a wire he used to pick the lock.
A story of double deception among the animals
themselves comes from an observation station created by Jane Goodall in the
wilds of Tanzania. Just at the moment that one chimpanzee found a cache of food,
a more dominant chimp appeared on the scene. The first chimp walked away from
the cache and acted nonchalantly until the second chimp left the scene. When the
coast was clear, the first chimp went over to the food and began to eat.
However, the second chimp had only appeared to have left. He was observed to
have hidden himself in the bushes and spied on the first chimp to learn of its
deception. When the secret was exposed, the dominant chimp returned to the scene
and claimed the food for himself.
Pet owners often attribute to their animals
more intelligence, awareness and cunning than psychologists think they deserve.
In the academic community, animal awareness is still as much an anathema as ESP.
I don't think the church is as against animal awareness as much as is the
university, even though it was the church who invented animal dumbness to create
a spiritual gap between them and us. But evidence is mounting to force a
conclusion that animals do think, have feelings, and are creative. Some animals,
such as chimps and parrots, are even able to learn how to use symbolic language
intelligently. Their ability to deceive, as cute or unattractive as it may be,
is a quite important clue about their minds. The act of deception shows an
awareness of the mental states of others and an understanding of how those
mental states can be misled. My goats seem to assume that as long as I don't see
them walk through the fence, I won't know there's a hole in it, so they seem to
act so as to plant a false belief in my mind.
At a time when threats to the welfare of
animals abound, it’s good to hear stories that speak to us about their
recognizably human qualities. When we empathize with them, it helps us connect
to them as beings like us. In that way they become as our teachers, inspiring us
to develop a more sensitive and caring relationship with the critters with whom
we share this planet.
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