Intelligent, creative animal behavior you've witnessed

[FilterFunk]

This can include pets, but it has to be something they figured out on their own - nothing that was taught by humans. Stories can include something you saw in the media, but again it has to be untrained behavior. Okay, I'll start:

I saw a crow put something in a birdbath. When the crow flew away, I took a closer look and found out the object was a piece of pizza crust. A little later, the crow came back, pecked at the crust, turned it over and flew away again. A little later, the crow came back and pecked at the crust again, but this time it took the crust when it flew away. Apparently, it used the water in the birdbath to soften the crust to its liking.

Fellow TBers - please share any stories of intelligent, creative animal behavior you've witnessed.

 

[pacojas]

Sasquatch lives

 

[Gazman]

I've seen ants, carry long twigs up to a crack in the wall, then turn around and drag it into the small opening, because it won't fit sideways.

 

[two fingers]

At my home a few years ago a Purple Martin settled into a piece of soffit that was slightly hanging down at the corner of the 2nd floor. After that season I cleaned out the nest and snapped the soffit back I to place. He settled into it again pulling it out somehow. Every year I push it back in after the season, which is quite hard to do actually, and he (she?) gets it back out and settles in. I pulled it out to see how hard it is and it is quite hard. For the life of me I can't figure out how.



Also, a neighbor has a bird feeder on a pole. To keep the squirrels out he placed a metal ring about halfway up. One day I was standing in the yard with him and we watched a squirrel figure out how to get onto the feeder. He crawled up the wall about 5 feet away from the feeder (brick wall mind you). He crawled about 4 or 5 feet higher than the feeder. He kept looking over his shoulder and adjusting his position slightly left, right, up or down. Then he suddenly jumped by pushing himself away from the wall. He landed directly on top of the feeder, crawled down and had lunch. We both agreed that he had earned the right to partake from the bird feeder and left him alone to eat. Well played, squirrel. Well played.

 

[TOOL460002]

Saw a thing where they put worms in a shot glass with water, but too far down for the crows to reach. They dropped a couple rocks in the glass to raise the water level and eat the worms. Very smart birds.

We had a dog that could open child proof cabinets to get into the garbage. Was a lab/poodle/huskey mix. Smart mutt.

 

[jmverdugo]

When I was young we had a small white dog , mix of poodle I think. He was the smartest dog I have ever seen, we never trained him to do anything and he learned all kind of tricks by himself but the most impressive thing was his ability to escape the house and get into other people's house. He was nicknamed Houdinni in our neighborhood. He knew to open latches, turn keys, open windows, take down screens, jump fences, squeeze underneath doors, jump down vent holes, etc ... You name he could do it and all his motivation was to have sex, needless to say we had a lot of people coming over our house with vet bills or puppies, or shoving guns in anger because their contest level Maltese was pregnant of our no name breed dog. Oh fun times those were !

 

[sharkbait130]

Our family dog (Abdul , the Jack Russel Terrorist) had a definite sense of humor. He had this leather chew toy for several months. It had gotten really gross. It was well chewed , had been left out in the weather and dragged through the yard but he wouldn't give it up. One day my daughter (Jailbait) had just gotten out of the shower and was sitting on the couch drying her hair. Abdul found his gross chew toy and quite casually walked over to her and dropped the filthy thing on her foot. She jumped up screaming how gross it was and ran back to the bathroom and rinsed off her foot. When she finished , she returned to the living room and continued to dry her hair. Everything was going well until the dog returned with the chew toy and dropped it on her foot again. Same result. She ran screaming back to the bathroom to rinse off her foot again. When she returned this time she was looking out for the dog , who had disappeared. She sat back down to finish drying her hair when the ghastly beast came running down the hall with the chew toy. She jumped up and ran away with the dog chasing her. He chased her around the first floor of the house a couple of times until she ran upstairs and locked herself in her room. The dog returned to the living room and plopped down in his corner with his chew toy. I could swear he was laughing.

 

[Tom Bomb]

I was camped on Jimmy's Beach, Hawks Nest, at the base of this headland in the distance, one evening fishing for dinner, and watched two dolphins chasing bream into the shallows where they put the hammer down so hard their tails were rooster-tailing like speedboats. They were clearly herding, and working in collaboration. They feasted. But, no bream for me I didn't mind in the slightest.

 

[ShredderMaximus]

When I was a kid our dog would carry his water bucket from the side of the house to the lawn and under the running sprinklers if he was low or out of water.

I also found the crows dropping walnuts in the street pretty amusing on my walks to work.

 

[Jazz Ad]

Last week I saw 3 sheeps making a pyramid so the top one could reach leaves from a tree.
The crows near my inlaws bark like dogs when a cat starts climbing into their trees.

 

[MJ5150]

Our bloodhound figured out how to open the doors in the house we rented in New Hampshire. All the doors had handles, instead of the typical knobs. She watched us open a few of them over and over, then she would put her chin on the top of the handle and push down while pushing forward on the door.
The only fix I came up with was a trip to Home Depot where I bought a box of door knobs, and then replaced all the handles in the house. When we moved out, I had to put all the handles back on.
She also watched us operate the garbage can a few times and noticed how we'd wave our hand over the top to get it the lid to open. She'd wave her nose over the top, lid opened.

-Mike

 

[Gorn]

I've seen apes build cities and particle accelerators and send other apes to the moon. Evolution is amazing.

 

[Fleebag]

 

[Aberdumbie]

Had an old blind beagle. He was the joy of my life. Unexpectedly we brought a beagle pup in the house. The pup wanted to run rambunctious. My old blind buddy tended to lie in my easy chair.... Was astonished one day to see both dogs running. My old blind dogs nose resting on the pups back. They played that way the next two years. The pup became a seeing eye dog for my old blind dog.

 

[the harp unstrung]

At my home a few years ago a Purple Martin settled into a piece of soffit that was slightly hanging down at the corner of the 2nd floor. After that season I cleaned out the nest and snapped the soffit back I to place. He settled into it again pulling it out somehow. Every year I push it back in after the season, which is quite hard to do actually, and he (she?) gets it back out and settles in. I pulled it out to see how hard it is and it is quite hard. For the life of me I can't figure out how.



Also, a neighbor has a bird feeder on a pole. To keep the squirrels out he place a metal ring about halfway up. One day I was standing in the yard with him and we watched a squirrel figure out how to get onto the feeder. He crawled up the wall about 5 feet away from the feeder (brick wall mind you). He crawled about 4 or 5 feet higher than the feeder. He kept looking over his shoulder and adjusting his position slightly left, right, up or down. Then he suddenly he jumped by pushing himself away from the wall. He landed directly on top of the feeder, crawled down and had lunch. We both agreed that he had earned the right to partake from the bird feeder and left him alone to eat. Well played, squirrel. Well played.

I grew up filling the bird? feeders.
If it says "Squirrel Proof", they Knew they were lying into your face when they wrote the copy...

 

[hondo4life]

My dog can do... carrots. He isn't the brightest.

 

[the harp unstrung]

This can include pets, but it has to be something they figured out on their own - nothing that was taught by humans. Stories can include something you saw in the media, but again it has to be untrained behavior. Okay, I'll start:

I saw a crow put something in a birdbath. When the crow flew away, I took a closer look and found out the object was a piece of pizza crust. A little later, the crow came back, pecked at the crust, turned it over and flew away again. A little later, the crow came back and pecked at the crust again, but this time it took the crust when it flew away. Apparently, it used the water in the birdbath to soften the crust to its liking.

Fellow TBers - please share any stories of intelligent, creative animal behavior you've witnessed.

I've lived a combined 17 years with two Shepards.
'Nuff said?

 

[Stewie26]

Our family dog (Abdul , the Jack Russel Terrorist) had a definite sense of humor. He had this leather chew toy for several months. It had gotten really gross. It was well chewed , had been left out in the weather and dragged through the yard but he wouldn't give it up. One day my daughter (Jailbait) had just gotten out of the shower and was sitting on the couch drying her hair. Abdul found his gross chew toy and quite casually walked over to her and dropped the filthy thing on her foot. She jumped up screaming how gross it was and ran back to the bathroom and rinsed off her foot. When she finished , she returned to the living room and continued to dry her hair. Everything was going well until the dog returned with the chew toy and dropped it on her foot again. Same result. She ran screaming back to the bathroom to rinse off her foot again. When she returned this time she was looking out for the dog , who had disappeared. She sat back down to finish drying her hair when the ghastly beast came running down the hall with the chew toy. She jumped up and ran away with the dog chasing her. He chased her around the first floor of the house a couple of times until she ran upstairs and locked herself in her room. The dog returned to the living room and plopped down in his corner with his chew toy. I could swear he was laughing.

Maybe he was trying to communicate to ask if she could wash his dirty chew toy too? Just sayin.

 

[Alkali Ike]

This neighborhood is overrun with wild turkeys. A couple days ago a hen turkey came grazing through my yard accompanied by a dozen tiny turkey chicks. The chicks could barely walk, deflinitely couldn't fly.

So the hen jumps up onto a short stone retaining wall, about 15" high. The chicks could not jump that high, not even close.

The hen looks around and figures out there are steps up to that level. She moves over to the steps, making turkey noises to attract her brood. Chicks go over to the steps, which are low enough for some of them to jump onto & climb.

But a few chicks still can't make it. Then the hen figures out there's a narrow crevice along the edge of the steps that the chicks can squeeze through to get to the upper level without using the steps. She goes to that crevice and makes her turkey noises. The chicks find the crevice and all make it successfully to the upper level.

Is that animal intelligence? Or just some kind of base instinct? To me it looked like rudimentary intelligence.

My cat knows how to open the pocket door to a walk-in closet. But once she's inside, she can't open the door again to get out, because she pushes the door in the wrong direction. She always pushes the door right to left whether she's inside or outside the closet.

 

[tangentmusic]

Back in '77 I had quite an in depth conversation with a guitarist's Saint Bernard one night.
But it was probably the acid..