Pet Companion Magazine Spring 2021 Page 64
Discover the True Intelligence of Animals D A new YouTube show for the entire family “Dogs are great at learn-ing tricks. They can learn things like sit, roll, give me your paw, come. But we still don’t really know what they’re thinking,” said Natalia Borrego, wildlife biologist, researcher and co-host of Animal IQ. To dive deeper, PBS Digital Studios and Nature created a custom Animal IQ Rubric to track existing research and measure five domains of intelligence including: Social, Rational, Awareness, Ecologi-cal and an X-Factor. “Some of the questions we’re looking to explore are: Do all animals map their environment and defend their territory? Can individ-uals recognize themselves? Do animals truly cooperate? Which species have self-con-trol? Can any other animal understand death or feel em -pathy?” Science communi-cator and Animal IQ co-host, Trace Dominguez explains. “One of the most surpris -ing things I learned while researching and filming this series was how specialized different species can be for specific tasks. Foxes can tell if you moved a chair only a few centimeters while they were out of the room. Penguins can find their way to a specif-ic spot even when the colony has shifted and blowing snow made their path unrecogniz-able,” Trace added. “Without giving away too many spoilers: every animal is clever but their talents vary based on their evolution, biology, values, adaptations and environment. Each ani-mal is incredible in their own way!” o elephants really never forget? Are foxes actually that sly? Just how clever is your dog? Animal IQ , a new series from PBS Digital Studios in partnership with Nature, seeks to answer the question: how smart are Earth’s animals? For generations, humans have wondered if other creatures think the way we do. Scientists devise tests, experiments, and devices to probe the cognition of our fellow fauna. Researchers use puzzle boxes, hidden camer-as, brain scans, and mirror tests to suss out social skills, learning ability, vocalization, memory, and even collabo-ration. Yet, after centuries of study, some animals still leave us stumped. Do we have the tools to understand animal intelligence? Can we really know which animal is the smartest? MEET THE HOSTS is a wildlife biologist, researcher and educator. She is most well known for her studies on big cat cognition and was the first scien-tist to experimentally investigate cognition in African lions, tigers and leopards. NATALIA BORREGO, P h .D., Learn more about the secret smarts of animals at pbs.org/nature and PBS Terra on YouTube. is a science communicator, Emmy-nominated on-camera host, producer and podcaster. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Flavia and their cats, Carmela and Barley. TRACE DOMINGUEZ