What do animals have to say?

I have never tried to ask this of ATS and I am not sure if I am even allowed.

I was just thinking about alex.
Alex is a parrot that has been said to be the first animal on record that asked an existential question.
modernnotion.com...
He asked , "what color am I?"

I wondered , is that true?
Humans have been interacting with animals forever but to my knowledge we didn't start to actively try and teach them our language or try and learn theirs until the 19 hundreds. An exception to that would be canines learning our speech but it is my belief that it was the canines that choice to learn in the beginning.
This is an example of an early test with a chimpanzee. www.npr.org...

There seems to be work being done with dolphins a lot. www.newscientist.com...

Since the 1960s, captive dolphins have been communicating via pictures and sounds. In the 1990s, Louis Herman of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that bottle nose dolphins can keep track of over 100 different words. They can also respond appropriately to commands in which the same words appear in a different order, understanding the difference between “bring the surfboard to the man” and “bring the man to the surfboard”, for example.

What I am asking is for ATS to help me find information related to this question, " What have animals had to say to humans."
What have they said during these tests. Do they talk about themselves ever? Is alex the parrot truly the only time it happened? There must be dozens if not hundreds of tests that have been done around the world.
Find them for me. Your my only hope.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Koko the gorilla - communicates with sign language
www.youtube.com...

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Asked my big dumb dog, what it's like to be a dog.
He said: "Wuf"...

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
I have never tried to ask this of ATS and I am not sure if I am even allowed.

I was just thinking about alex.
Alex is a parrot that has been said to be the first animal on record that asked an existential question.
modernnotion.com...
He asked , "what color am I?"

I wondered , is that true?
Humans have been interacting with animals forever but to my knowledge we didn't start to actively try and teach them our language or try and learn theirs until the 19 hundreds. An exception to that would be canines learning our speech but it is my belief that it was the canines that choice to learn in the beginning.
This is an example of an early test with a chimpanzee. www.npr.org...

There seems to be work being done with dolphins a lot. www.newscientist.com...

Since the 1960s, captive dolphins have been communicating via pictures and sounds. In the 1990s, Louis Herman of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that bottle nose dolphins can keep track of over 100 different words. They can also respond appropriately to commands in which the same words appear in a different order, understanding the difference between “bring the surfboard to the man” and “bring the man to the surfboard”, for example.

What I am asking is for ATS to help me find information related to this question, " What have animals had to say to humans."
What have they said during these tests. Do they talk about themselves ever? Is alex the parrot truly the only time it happened? There must be dozens if not hundreds of tests that have been done around the world.
Find them for me. Your my only hope.

Birds can be taught to repeat a statement or question. Or even string words together. Parrots are not that smart. Stick with Crows or ravens if you want intelligence.

originally posted by: ccseagull
a reply to: scraedtosleep

Koko the gorilla - communicates with sign language
www.youtube.com...

Yes but has Koko ever asked a question?

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: BelowLowAnnouncement

originally posted by: ccseagull
a reply to: scraedtosleep

Koko the gorilla - communicates with sign language
www.youtube.com...

Yes but has Koko ever asked a question?

en.wikipedia.org...

Yes many times. My son's have hidden my copy of Koko's story or I could quote the children's book.

She also smokes and does other things unappealing to others.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

I've never been able to find it again, but I saw a doc on dolphins where they were trying to find out if dolphins could comprehend on a higher order.

They rewarded a dolphin for showing them a behavior and rewarded it all day for showing that behavior. It caught on quickly and the next day showed them that behavior, but they wanted to see a new behavior. So they waited until did another behavior and they rewarded that. It didn't take long before the dolphin showed them another behavior every day until it ran out of behaviors it knew.

At this point, the dolphin was stymied and tried repeating behaviors it knew, but the researchers wouldn't reward it. It got frustrated showing behavior after behavior, day after day, but the researchers had seen all of them.

They were about to discontinue the experiment when the dolphin finally did something completely new it had never shown them before and had not been previously taught. This was what they were waiting for, and they rewarded it. They said it was like a lightbulb had gone off. The dolphin got very excited and raced around showing off behavior after behavior that they'd never seen before.

And every day after that, it had something new to show them.

And that was the purpose - to see if it could learn to create new things.

But I've never been able to find the clip from that doc.

My cat is trained to sit facing the wall for his treats....once he is seated I take his treats and place them down where I choose and he must come sit down and remain seated facing away from me.....if he gets up or turns around and cheats...no treats....so he has learned to wait till I walk away to drop his treats and my back is turned to quickly peek over his shoulder to spy the drop-spot...then he returns to attention....and...lol...lets me believe he has no idea where the goods are as he lets me direct him to his treats....he even pretends he doesn't know the way.....lol.....so obviously he is aware of himself and of me and of rules....and he plans ahead visualising future actions and consequences and outcomes.....which is why a cat doesn't jump from a 10th floor balcony unless it is scared to death or retarded....it is aware of its existence and its mortality in the big scheme of things.

Well this is about all I hear from my dogs: "Treats? Treats! Yes treats! Yes! Hugs! Give me hugs! This arm is mine. I need hugs!"

You know, I have often wondered if there are instances of Genius in the animal world, much like Genius in the human world. And if so, were there ever humans who recognized this.

a reply to: one4all

Cats are smarter than they let on.

We are on our third cat who learned how to stand for treats by watching the others do it.

We taught one to stand for his catnip (very motivating). The next one taught herself to get catnip by watching him. This one doesn't like catnip, but she learned how to stand for her freeze-dried animal treats by watching the others stand for their highs.

originally posted by: Plotus
You know, I have often wondered if there are instances of Genius in the animal world, much like Genius in the human world. And if so, were there ever humans who recognized this.

Maybe that explains stuff like this.
listverse.com...

11 month old Watusu Calf suddenly turned and blocked her path, she couldn’t understand why it was doing this, so she took hold of its horns and tried pushing it, but it tossed its head and knocked her off balance, that’s when she spotted a copper-head snake on the ground exactly were her foot would have been

We grossly umderestimate the animals on this planet

Our dogs understand rudimentary english. If i tell them to go find someone by name they go to them. Be it dog or human.

They process differently, but there is an intelligence among all of them.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: scraedtosleep

Asked my big dumb dog, what it's like to be a dog.
He said: "Wuf"...

And you, human, did not understand! Maybe that was an informative story about what it's like to be a dog. Compact and short. But what if the "Wuf" was like a .zip file? To us, all of the "Wuf" may sound the same but there might be tiny changes in tone, length and such.

Dolphins and communicating with them, now that i find fascinating. I have heard they even give each others names and call them when needed.

Great thread!

maybe it`s a 2 way street maybe the animals are trying to teach humans to react in a certain way in response to what they the animals are doing? and when we don`t react in the way that they want us to they think : gawd! humans are stupid!

I try to communicate with my dog, I say: " muttley! what do you want to do? he just wags his tails and perks his ears up, so I give a dog biscuit and he ignores it,so I give him play toy and he ignores it, so then I open the door and runs out, he`s probably thinking: Gawd! humans are stupid! after 7 years this stupid human still doesn`t know that when I wag my tail and perk my ears it means I want to go out.and when I perk my ears first and then wag my tail it means I want food.and when I perk my ears and move my whiskers it means....

originally posted by: Finspiracy

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: scraedtosleep

Asked my big dumb dog, what it's like to be a dog.
He said: "Wuf"...

And you, human, did not understand! Maybe that was an informative story about what it's like to be a dog. Compact and short. But what if the "Wuf" was like a .zip file?

To us, all of the "Wuf" may sound the same but there might be tiny changes in tone, length and such.

Dolphins and communicating with them, now that i find fascinating. I have heard they even give each others names and call them when needed.

Great thread!

Every infant dolphins chooses their own name based on the sounds they hear around them and use it for their lifetime. Other articles said that it was a derivation of the pods name and the mothers name.

www.livescience.com...

originally posted by: one4all
My cat is trained to sit facing the wall for his treats....once he is seated I take his treats and place them down where I choose and he must come sit down and remain seated facing away from me.....if he gets up or turns around and cheats...no treats....so he has learned to wait till I walk away to drop his treats and my back is turned to quickly peek over his shoulder to spy the drop-spot...then he returns to attention....and...lol...lets me believe he has no idea where the goods are as he lets me direct him to his treats....he even pretends he doesn't know the way.....lol.....so obviously he is aware of himself and of me and of rules....and he plans ahead visualising future actions and consequences and outcomes.....which is why a cat doesn't jump from a 10th floor balcony unless it is scared to death or retarded....it is aware of its existence and its mortality in the big scheme of things.

How can you be sure, that it's not the cat, that has trained you?

Here's a few decent looking docos on the subject:

originally posted by: Nothin

originally posted by: one4all
My cat is trained to sit facing the wall for his treats....once he is seated I take his treats and place them down where I choose and he must come sit down and remain seated facing away from me.....if he gets up or turns around and cheats...no treats....so he has learned to wait till I walk away to drop his treats and my back is turned to quickly peek over his shoulder to spy the drop-spot...then he returns to attention....and...lol...lets me believe he has no idea where the goods are as he lets me direct him to his treats....he even pretends he doesn't know the way.....lol.....so obviously he is aware of himself and of me and of rules....and he plans ahead visualising future actions and consequences and outcomes.....which is why a cat doesn't jump from a 10th floor balcony unless it is scared to death or retarded....it is aware of its existence and its mortality in the big scheme of things.

How can you be sure, that it's not the cat, that has trained you?

He thinks he has with a 100% certainty....he is soooo vain.....lol.

a reply to: ketsuko

Cats can be incredibly intelligent.
There is a young(Probably a year or so old when he showed up) Egyptian cat that started visiting my friends house last summer out of the blue who will enter my friends house and announce himself,he then continues to meow until his presence has been acknowledged,using his meow and your voice as a sonar to find your exact location. When this cat makes leaps I see him measure the distance several times looking back and forth from where he is to where he wants to jump(only for large jumps),I've never seen him fail once. He had a habit of jumping on the counter and tearing open bags of chips or anything else he could manage to open with his claws until my friend told him NO and gave him a shove,he hasn't been on the counter since.(yes he ate what ever he opened,including Doritos)

The amazing thing with this cat is he sat maybe one or two feet away from us while we were chopping wood in his large backyard,the flying pieces of wood,noise,and our movements never bothered the little guy,he just watched us work at making that fire wood patiently,not even bothering us with a meow. We also tested some homemade Roman pilums made in my friends workshop the same week,the cat watched us throw these and destroy targets we made to simulate the armor of the day,the cat stayed out of the way the whole time,watching seemingly with interest.

That cat will also try any food you give him,he might never eat it again but he will try it before he decides if he doesn't like it or not. We are still trying to find things he doesn't like to eat,he seems to enjoy any food that isn't lettuce. You name it and we have probably fed it to him,he even likes eel,I thought for sure there was no way he would eat a barbecue pork bun(the traditional Asian street food kind) or ramen but he loves it all. My friend gets annoyed with the cat sometimes because if he picks up some fast food and he leaves the food within reach of the cat the cat will open whatever it is and eat it,I personally witnessed him tear into so Taco Bell and Subway while we had a smoke on his porch for maybe five minutes.

I have seen dogs with pickier taste buds than this cat,he never seems to stop eating either,I'm amazed he stays in shape because I've seen that cat eat two Taco's and a six inch sub from Subway and still be hungry enough 10 minutes later to eat all the cat food in his dish. This dang cat eats more than I do