Africa’s most intelligent wildlife | Tunde Folawiyo

December 17, 2013 Editor

Due to the diversity of its landscape, Africa is home to an enormous number of animal species, each of which has evolved to meet the unique challenges of its environment. Take, for instance, the lion, an animal greatly admired by Tunde Folawiyo; this creature is able to run at incredibly fast speeds, which allow it not only to catch its prey, but also to escape from predators. However, whilst all of Africa’s creatures have a certain biological intelligence which enables them to survive, few have the same mental capacity as the African elephant, and the bonobo. Although there is some debate surrounding this subject, these two mammals are arguably Africa’s most intelligent mammals.

The African elephant’s brain is larger than that of any other land animal, and has been found by scientists to resemble the human brain, in terms of both its complexity and its structure. Additionally, studies of elephant herds have shown that these animals express emotions such as compassion, empathy and sadness, and demonstrate the ability to memorise behaviours and places, to play with one another, and to co-operate.

Recently, Professor Richard Byrne from the University of St Andrews published his findings on this subject. He discovered that, much like young human children, elephants are able to instantly understand when a human points to an object. In the study, a number of untrained elephants in Zimbabwe were able to correctly choose a bucket with food, over an empty bucket, when the former was pointed to by a researcher. This indicates a level of cognition which was previously thought not to have existed in this species. Unfortunately, the numbers of these fascinating creatures continue to decline; many fervent supporters of animal conservation, like Tunde Folawiyo are deeply concerned with the endangerment of this species.

The bonobo is another highly intelligent animal; part of the Pan genus, its features include a tail-tuft, a dark face and long limbs. They are unique to Congo, and are one of our closest genetic relatives within the animal kingdom, sharing more than 98% of our DNA. These matriarchal apes have been shown to have strong cognitive skills, including the ability to communicate and express emotion. A psychologist by the name of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh spent many years working with a male bonobo called Kanzi. After teaching him how to use a special keyboard, Kanzi was able to communicate by pointing at hundreds of different symbols on this device. Research performed at Antwerp Zoon yielded similar results, showing that bonobos were able to collaborate with one another to solve the puzzles and challenges given to them by the researchers.