10 Animals with Surprisingly Smart Social Lives

[Michie]

They may not be able to type out pithy messages on Twitter, and they’re definitely not networking online, but you’ll be surprised at exactly how social certain animals are. Check out these 10 animals that might have more of a social network than you.

1. COWS IN CLIQUES ARE SMARTER THAN LONE BOVINES.
You already know that cows are typically found in herds, but it’s been proven that grouping is actually beneficial to their intelligence. Researcher put calves together and tested them on “reversal learning,” in which they were trained to associate a black or white square with food. Once that had been learned, the researchers switched which color meant food. The clique of calves learned the “reverse” task much faster than the isolated cows. In another test, an unfamiliar object was placed in the pen with a group of cows. The band of bovines grew tired of the new object much faster than the solo cows did, leading researchers to theorize that socially adept cows assimilate better—an important aspect of learning.


2. FEMALE MULE DEER HAVE EACH OTHER’S BACKS.

Continued below.
10 Animals with Surprisingly Smart Social Lives

 

[BeyondET]

 

[BeyondET]

 

[Eftsoon]

They may not be able to type out pithy messages on Twitter, and they’re definitely not networking online, but you’ll be surprised at exactly how social certain animals are. Check out these 10 animals that might have more of a social network than you.

1. COWS IN CLIQUES ARE SMARTER THAN LONE BOVINES.
You already know that cows are typically found in herds, but it’s been proven that grouping is actually beneficial to their intelligence. Researcher put calves together and tested them on “reversal learning,” in which they were trained to associate a black or white square with food. Once that had been learned, the researchers switched which color meant food. The clique of calves learned the “reverse” task much faster than the isolated cows. In another test, an unfamiliar object was placed in the pen with a group of cows. The band of bovines grew tired of the new object much faster than the solo cows did, leading researchers to theorize that socially adept cows assimilate better—an important aspect of learning.


2. FEMALE MULE DEER HAVE EACH OTHER’S BACKS.

Continued below.
10 Animals with Surprisingly Smart Social Lives

Elephants are another remarkable species. Highly intelligent animals and no mistake.

 

[Michie]

7. ELEPHANTS TALK TO EACH OTHER (SOMETIMES IN SECRET TONES).
Not only do elephants communicate with each other, sometimes they do it in tones humans can’t even hear. After years of observing elephants in the wild, researchers have found that elephants use more than 70 kinds of vocal sounds and 160 visual and tactile signals, expressions, and gestures. They can mean anything from “Let’s go” to “Help, I’m lost.” The latter is often done in a low frequency that will travel for miles through forest, letting the pachyderms connect without alerting other animals to their presence.