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cwalt

MH
Posts:180

08/09/2008 9:08 PM
We have difficulty deciding what human intelligence means, aside from a numerical score on a test. I have doubt that we can quantify, or qualify, wolf or dog intelligence since their behaviours and social interactions are markedly different. Within a species, or species group, the size of the brain isn't necessarily correlated with what we consider to be intelligence although there are indications that it (brain size) does vary within litters with the amount of early (>1 year) exposure to an enriched environment, presumably because of the increased number of neurons fostered by early learning. I can assert with some confidence that the intelligence of wolves and dogs are different but will make no claims about the superiority of either. Evolution is not progressive, that it has no direction either up or down, the only decision evolution makes is life or death. Intelligence isn't the measure of evolutionary success, the test is survival. There are only a few thousand wolves of all species on this planet but there are multiple millions of dogs... which species is smarter? The wolf has a very intricate repertoire of behaviours, especially social ones, that are innate as fixed action patterns and reflexes. This repertoire isn't the sum of the species' intelligence and such repertoires are common amongst all social carnivores. The domestic dog may come out ahead of the wolf in the IQ department because wolves have only one set of social interactions whereas dogs learn to read humans as well as other dogs, a more difficult task. Wolves cannot read human body language very well and, unlike dogs, their body language isn't easily interpreted by humans. Bears are notably "treacherous" because they're solitary rather than social and their body language isn't obvious to humans. We can get along to some extent with pack carnivores because we can vaguely interpret their body language but solitary carnivores are very dangerous to man because their body language isn't a very good index to their future behavior, many bear experts have died because they _thought_ they could read bear body language. Now dogs have a major intellectual advantage, they all can read dog, human and wolf body languages whereas wolves and humans are pretty much limited to only their own species' signals. Is being trilingual a handicap or a sign of lesser intelligence? Cj

soniaskinner User is Offline

MH
Posts:98

08/10/2008 12:45 PM
> confidence that the intelligence of wolves and dogs are different but will > make > no claims about the superiority of either. Evolution is not progressive, that > it has no direction either up or down, the only decision evolution makes is > life > or death. Intelligence isn't the measure of evolutionary success, the test is > survival. There are only a few thousand wolves of all species on this planet > but there are multiple millions of dogs... which species is smarter? The wolf has to be intelligent and smart to survive, maybe his skills are more highly honed than the domestic dog as the wolf has to provide his own food a matter of life or death. Would we say the domestic dog is smart/intelligent because it has evolved so that the human provides the food and shelter! Sonia

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