Here’s a short, slow-motion clip of an owl in flight: Not so much about animal intelligence as it is about the beauty and grace of the animal kingdom.

I first took note of this phenomena a few years ago. Around fall, it’s like all of the sudden the squirrels somehow get a lot dumber and practically throw themselves under cars. This year it seemed to have started even earlier. My suspicion was that after a few good summer months of gorging themselves on [...]

Though I suspect many of you have seen this by now, here’s a disturbing story from Coventry, England. Mary Bale was out for a walk when a cat jumped up to greet her. She petted the cat like any normal person would — but then she picked it up and threw it in the trash! [...]

I’ve been swamped at my other sites making preparations for a long vacation, so I haven’t had a chance to share any animal stories, despite the fact that people are sending me them in droves. (Thanks for that, by the way.) However, I did want to take some time to respond to concerns raised in [...]

I’ve always been fascinated by the similarities — and differences — between big animals and their domesticated counterparts. Take cats, for example. Do lions and tigers purr? (Answer: Sort of. Your neighborhood tabby purrs while inhaling and exhaling; big cats purr only when they breathe out.) And while I&

My cat Toto is aging, and as she ages, her body is failing her. Mentally, she seems sharp, but after sixteen years, Toto’s hips are causing her obvious trouble. In fact, they make it so that she can’t use a litterbox effectively. She tries to squat, but mostly she just pisses out the back end [...]

Perhaps it’s because I grew up watching and re-watching ET — who resembled an overgrown deshelled turtle — that I feel such an affinity for these little dudes. For cold-blooded reptiles, turtles and tortoises are adorable. To see one helping up a buddy, as in the following video, well that just amps up the cut

In the past, animals with birth defects and physical abnormalities didn’t stand a chance of survival. But modern medicine — and increased animal domestication — has given some of these critters a second leash on life. Here’s the story of Grace, the two-legged kitten. This local news story from April

Did you know that otters have to be taught to swim? These cute little critters aren’t born with an affinity for water. When they’re about a month old, their mother has to teach them to enter the water, to float, and then to swim. Here’s a video from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in which [...]

If you’re one of those lucky folks who live in London (I love London), look out for a free photography exhibit next week at the Royal Geographic Society. From September 6th through 10th, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust will be displaying photos from three of the world’s best wildlife photographers: Joachim Sc

Though Animal Intelligence will generally feature fun and interesting stories about animals and their behavior, not all of them will be quite so positive. Recently for Time magazine, Ishaan Tharoor compiled a list of animals that had been pressed into service for human wars. The Time article was spurred in part by reports t

Yesterday we shared the story of Tara the elephant whose best friend is Bella the dog. Here’s another animal odd couple: As unlikely friendships go, this one’s a doozy. Surya the orangutan was out for her daily walk with her human companions (atop a freaking elephant of course!) when she spotted a lost hound dog

The San Jose Mercury News reports that a marmalade cat named Christopher seems to have a sixth sense. Christopher lives at the Nine Lives Foundation’s Feline Well-Care Clinic (that’s a mouthful!) and has the uncanny ability to sense when other cats are sick and hurting. From the article: [Christopher] will sit o

What better way to kick off the re-launch of Animal Intelligence than a story of inter-species friendship? As long-time readers know (if there are still any long-time readers remaining), and as new readers will soon learn, I have a soft spot for stories about animal odd couples. A cat who is raised by a crow? [...]

After two days of hard work, I’ve managed to massage Animal Intelligence into shape, I think. If you visit the site (as opposed to reading via e-mail or RSS), you’ll see that Animal Intelligence sports a new layout and a few new features in the sidebar. What you see here is just the start, and [...]

It’s been a couple of years since I posted anything new here at Animal Intelligence. It’s not that my interest in the subject has waned — if anything, I’m more convinced than ever about the intelligence of our non-human friends — but that my other blogs have taken all of my time. Lately, though

Gorillas and humans use similar body language to communicate, reports the U.K. Daily Mail. Researchers at the University of Sussex studied a family of gorillas in a British animal park. Psychologist Dr Gillian Sebestyen said: “We shared 23 million years of evolution with great apes and then diverged approximately six

I never understand those crazy Japanese television shows. But here’s a clip from one in which a chimpanzee learns to ride a Segway: I especially like how, after crashing into the bushes a couple times, the chimp learns to steer. Neat.

When I was a boy, we had a Saint Bernard. Like all Saint Bernards, Charlie was a big, slobbery dork of a dog. Charlie was a good dog. We also had several cats, one of which was named Batman. (We named all of our cats after comic book characters.) Charlie and Batman were best friends. [...]

Lynn sent me an item that’s been making the rounds as an e-mail forward. Though I’m reluctant to post something that I cannot properly credit, I’m going to do so. I like it that much. Terry Burns from Middleburg, Pennsylvania shared this photograph and caption with an unknown magazine: The text reads: Cash

This summer, my wife and I have made friends with the blue jays that live in our yard. We have been shocked by how brave they are, and by how much personality they possess. I grew up with birds in the house, but they were parrots and macaws and parakeets. I know that these birds [...]

Can you jump over 100 feet in the air? Neither can I. But trap-jaw ants can perform the equivalent feat. With their mouths. This video (complete with protractor!) demonstrates these amazing insects in action, using their jaws to propel themselves great distances. From the YouTube post: This has to be one of the oddest (and

Last fall I shared a two-minute video of the cat who was raised by a crow. Diane recently left a comment pointing to a longer video with a more complete story on this unlikely friendship: There is nothing I like more than stories of interspecies friendship. I love the idea that different kinds of animals [...]

It has been a long time since I posted here. It’s not for lack of material. Animal Intelligence doesn’t have a lot of readers, but you few brave souls continue to send me good stories. For example, here’s a story about Yosuke the Japanese parrort. When Yosuke escaped from his cage, he was able to [...]

When I was a kid, we used to try to fool our dog, Hairy. We’d make a stuffed dog “growl” and “bark” at him. Hairy was always game, responding to the play with growls and barks of his own, but I’ve always wondered just what his thought process was. Did he understand it was play? [...]