Animal intelligence shouldn’t be based off our metric of how many human characteristics they have and understand or do

I think that I could never ask my cat what it’s like to be a cat. She could only tell me what it’s like to be her. Because she doesn’t hold the concept of being a cat in my world. She has her own consciousness that creates its own understanding. Names or terms for things. And believes of the world she interacts with.

Like all animals. I think they all have their own terms of understanding and navigating the world around them and they could be more complex than we can wrap our heads around. Maybe it’s not true to the world as we know and see it. To the science we know to understand and explain. I don’t think having human like understandings should be a marker of what it means to be intelligent. I don’t think animals are all just ranges of inate instinct either. I think they navigate life on their field of world they live in. But their societal understandings. Rules. Thoughts feelings and world view could be far more unique and intriguing. What do they communicate to each other on a level we can’t understand. What do they know of the sun. What is it to them. What is their way of explaining life around them. Any animal on any scale. They all make decisions. It’s not all instinct. There’s a symbol of conscious within them that isn’t just the “animal instinct”

The very concept of hierichery in animal groups. This might sound hard to explain but. If there was like. Mating bucks. And there’s a female in the field. A smaller buck is taking interest. He advances with intrigue. But a much larger buck comes on to the scene and challenges. The smaller buck has to have a conscious recognition of the reality in the situation. He has to not just be detured by intimidation alone. He has to consciously size himself up. To this fight. Recognize markers and details about his own abilities and physicallity compared to his challenger. And decide to bow out and not fight. Make a decision from this self aware thought process. The same way another large buck can come into the same scene. See the smaller buck bowed out of the challenge to the first large one. But this buck can understand it’s own ability. Physicallity. The odds. Size up the large dude. awareness to the initial challenger. And he can decide. I think I can take him. And take the challenge. And proceed to fight. A self aware decision. A conscious thought process in the rules of their world view.

i think there’s a conscious intelligent world view and society to animals that we deem animalistic instincts or dumb down because they don’t display human like behavior and understanding. And we give more hype to animals that Include our rules or recognize us as a people. And measure off that ability.