Do Animals Think?

Does your dog know when you've had a bad day? Can your cat tell that the coffee pot you left on might start a fire? Could a chimpanzee be trained to program your computer? In this provocative book, noted animal expert Clive Wynne debunks some commonly held notions about our furry friends. It may be romantic to ascribe human qualities to critters, he argues, but it's not very realistic. While animals are by no means dumb, they don't think the same way we do. Contrary to what many popular television shows would have us believe, animals have neither the "theory-of-mind" capabilities that humans have (that is, they are not conscious of what others are thinking) nor the capacity for higher-level reasoning. So, in Wynne's view, when Fido greets your arrival by nudging your leg, he's more apt to be asking for dinner than commiserating with your job stress.

That's not to say that animals don't possess remarkable abilities — and Do Animals Think? explores countless examples: there's the honeybee, which not only remembers where it found food but communicates this information to its hivemates through an elaborate dance. And how about the sonar-guided bat, which locates flying insects in the dark of night and devours lunch on the wing?

Engagingly written, Do Animals Think? takes aim at the work of such renowned animal rights advocates as Peter Singer and Jane Goodall for falsely humanizing animals. Far from impoverishing our view of the animal kingdom, however, it underscores how the world is richer for having such a diversity of minds — be they of the animal or human variety.

"Animal expert Wynne (Animal Cognition: The Mental Life of Animals), an associate professor of psychology at the University of Florida, delivers a detailed yet enjoyably written exploration of recent discoveries of modern animal behavior. In answering the question whether animals 'think' or have the consciousness of self that humans do, his main point is simple: 'We don't have to pretend that some species have consciousness equivalent to ours. They don't and they don't need it to matter to us and deserve our attention.' Wynne is clearly arguing against the view of animal rights advocates such as Peter Singer and Jane Goodall who ascribe human attributes to animals. But Wynne is no reactionary — he strongly sympathizes with those who wish to improve the treatment of animals. But he forcefully argues that what animals may 'know' — for example, the honeybee recognizes time of day — is 'coded in the connections of the neurons; they are not conscious ideas.' However, in contending that 'the psychological abilities that make human culture possible... are almost entirely lacking in any other species,' he delightfully presents the many remarkable abilities of such animals as the bat, which 'sees' using echolocation, 'one of the most astonishing discoveries made about any animal's world in the last fifty years'; and dolphins, who use a form of sonar. It helps his arguments that Wynne is often as entertaining as he is erudite ('Like journalists listening in for excitement on police radio frequencies, dolphins channel-surf through the sound frequencies fish use'). (Apr.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

1 What Are Animals? 1

2 The Secrets of the Honeybee Machine 13

3 How Noble in Reason 46

4 What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 84

5 Talk to Me 106

6 The Pigeon That Saved a Battalion 139

7 Monkey See, Monkey Do? 162

8 Dolphins Divine 195

9 Sandwiches to Go 222

References 245

Acknowledgments 261

Index 263