He popped the bill in his mouth and ate it

24. The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity by Eugene Linden

This was a bit of an older book (published in '02 or '03), so it is very interesting and leaves me wanting to look for studies published in journals. Always careful to point out that most of these accounts are anecdotal (some unverifiable because they are third- or fourth-hand retellings) and not scientifically substantiated, Linden provides examples of seeming intelligence in a variety of species, including octopuses, dolphins, orangutans, chimps, elephants, starlings, and even household cats. A Pacific giant octopus pointedly refuses some spoiled shrimp by catching the eye of her keeper, then shoving the unsavory morsel into her aquarium's drain pipe. There's also the tale of Fu Manchu, an orang who picked the lock on his nighttime cage at least three times and kept his wire pick hidden in his mouth. An elephant, seeing her keeper struggling to push a wheelbarrow up a hill in her enclosure, gives unbidden assistance by pushing the barrow herself. An alpha male chimp comforts his zookeepers after the escape and tragic death of one of his colony's young females. A wild alpha male chimp in Uganda uses a stick to beat one of his females who is protecting her infant from him. All these stories are compelling, yet most would be rejected as intelligence by many reductionist scientists. Linden points out that intelligence is not clearly defined, which leads to the many arguments about whether animals are actually demonstrating the phenomenon. Reading the anecdotes made me feel that there is more going on in some species than just copying what they see humans do and more than just operant conditioning.