Scientists have been known to put a spin on research to say whatever they've wanted it to, in order to keep that grant money coming in. And studies on the same subject often conflict with eachother, from year to year. Certain segments of the scientific community has even been known to publish outright lies - even NASA scientists. I am just trying to put that into its proper perspective, as well.
I grew up with family pets and people have known for a long time that their pets are capable of things like counting, for example. Even something as primative as an insect can count food items, given to its maggots. There's all kinds of stuff like this going on that does make you wonder ... what are these animals truly capable of? Just how "aware" are they? And even Human Beings, for all of our assured self-awareness, whenever we first came across it, we did not know what to do with it. Now, that's very compelling, to me:
For along time, Humans did not know what to do with their Human intelligence. They just wandered about and didn't really do too much different, as before. And if I were an alien visiting Earth at that time, who knows what I'd think about them? Maybe I would be secure in my certain knowledge that these Humans were no better or different than a humpback whale. Maybe a certain species, or two, is at that crossroads, but I'll tell ya ... none, so far, have been able to contradict instinct. The only animals, in fact, who have shown any ability to thwart Human entanglements and manipulation are certain viruses, like the Common Cold. If the animal world was so brilliant, they'd defy our driving them to extinction.
