Less herd-dependent individual animals are more intelligent and innovative

For me, this is a scientific study which has resulted in a common-sense conclusion but it deserves to be stated. Scientists at the universities of Barcelona and Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany came to the conclusion that the more independent and less herd-dependent an individual animal is the more likely they are to “interact with novel stimuli or situations”.

In other words, the researchers concluded that animals outside of a herd who were outsiders tended to be less fearful of new experiences and were better problem solvers and therefore arguably smarter than those individuals who were confined to the herd and stayed there.

I'm smarter than them
I’m smarter than them. Researchers concluded that goats outside of a herd who were outsiders tended to be less fearful of new experiences and were better problem solvers and therefore arguably smarter than those individuals who were confined to the herd and stayed there. Image: MikeB

In an intelligence test these ‘outsider’ individuals came out best.

The argument is that individuals of the kind of animal species that form groups are going to be less exposed to new challenges (novel stimuli or situations) and therefore they don’t develop the intelligence and the skills to deal with them. And perhaps also they are less open to dealing with them because they’re new and therefore potentially frightening.

But within a group of animals there may be some loners or outsiders and they appear to develop an intelligence which is slightly superior to those within and confined to the group because they are faced with these challenges which they have to surmount to survive.

That’s my interpretation in my words.

The researchers from Spain and Germany analysed 111 animals belonging to 13 ungulates, or hooved species. The particular species included: goats, Arabian camels, Przewalki’s horses, giraffes, llamas, sheep, deer, gazelles and impalas. They were housed in zoos in France, Spain and Germany.

They assessed their behaviour in terms of “social integration in the group”. They also assessed whether they were interested in new or unusual experiences and objects or whether they had a fear of them.

They then tested their intelligence by presenting them with a cup containing favourite foods which could only be assessed if they took the lid off.

Overall, 36% of the animals retrieved the food at least once. Goats and Arabian camels were the most successful with a success rate of 69% and 86% respectively. The horses solved the problem and six seconds compared to 5 seconds for gazelles.

They concluded that:

Less neo-phobic [less frightened of new things] individuals and socially less integrated ones were more likely to solve the task.

It is believed that the animals that are less well integrated into a herd may need to work harder to find food.

They added:

“Less integrated individuals may [be] more likely [to] overcome neo-phobia and deal with novel socio-ecological challenges to get a better share of resources [and] little integration in the social network was linked to higher innovation”.

So, the animals need to use their brains and rely on innovative behaviour to survive.

The classic example in the cat world is the lion pride in terms of group living. And within this society there are some outsiders, males living in a small group and some of them want to take over the lion pride. They succeed and perhaps they developed a slightly higher intelligence which may have helped them achieve their goal.

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