I listened to an audio podcast from Science Friday, Radio hour about the “Secret (Smart) Life of Bees” and it focuses on a study regarding the European species of bumblebees: Bombus terrestris. This study in which bees had to move a ball from one location to another in order to receive a reward. There was much learned from this study, even when there were things already known about bees; such as the fact that it is known that bees are able to push various things in the name of a reward. But through this particular study, it was learned that bees have, not only a remarkable level of flexibility, but the fascinating ability to learn from their sisters despite being uninformed about the task and having no previous exposure.
I find it interesting that this was deemed important because this glimpse of a bee’s brain and thought process gives us a sense of understanding integrative brain function and multitasking. Bees have very complicated brains, more so than the average human would think was possible, especially considering humans have 85 billion neurons in their brain. And this complicated brain, with about 10,000 – 100,000 brain cells, can be described to be as small as a pinhead!
Thesis: The complexity and congestive ability of an animal has to be determined outside of the scope of “human intelligence.” Trying to meet just that standard is completely dismissive of the abilities all animals have simply because the definition of intelligence is so influence by this cognitive notion of human intelligence.