Every time I read a new article about bees it makes me realize just how little we understand biological intelligence. Today’s find: bees can distinguish split-second flashes of light, revealing surprising timing abilities and advanced cognitive flexibility.
Yup. Until recently we had a bad habit of giving other creatures tests geared towards mammals and then, when the reptile or insect or whatever didn’t ‘do well’ (because duh) our scientists declared that obviously meant they were stupid.
Like snakes were thought of as really dumb because they wouldn’t solve a maze to get to a piece of food like rats would.
Now, snakes can go sometimes a year without needing to eat, so of course they looked at the maze and said ‘Um, why should I go through all that effort, again? Eh, think I’ll take a nap instead.’
When scientists got smart enough to offer them a comfy dark place to take a nap as a reward, suddenly they were solving the mazes as fast as rats did.
(Of course intelligence does vary. Kingsnakes, for instance, obviously have a timeshare on the single orange braincell.)