intelligence of animals?

[Big Bob]

i have spent a lot of time recently pondering how intelligent many of our fellow earthly animals actually are. perhaps they are several times more intelligent than the average human being ever gives them credit for.

i became curious about any research done on animals' response to our music and searched online for something on this topic. i stumbled upon the following:

http://www.interspecies.com/

anyone heard of this or anything similar? i'm interested to hear people's thoughts. it is pretty incredible stuff. there are lots of audio clips on the site of jam sessions that include whales, dolphins, and others.




note - as i was finishing up looking at that site (4:30 am) the birds began chirping rather loudly outside my window. my curiosity was peaked so i grabbed my guitar and started playing along with their chirping as i noticed a definite looping pattern that at least one bird was doing at the time...well after about 5 minutes something startled me. a bird was at my window (the windows in this room are on the ceiling/roof) and had pecked against the screen. was he aknowledging me and the music i was playing? was it just a complete coincidence and a bird happened to be standing outside my window? perhaps he was simply curious about the strange noises coming from the the inside of that window. when he pecked at the screen i jumped a little and looked up, ceasing my guitar playing. he seemed startled himself by my reaction, obviously aware of my presence..he hopped a few times away from the window and then flew off.

i don't know why that bird came up to my window and pecked at it...but i am up until the birds wake up most nights/mornings and never before have i experienced a bird purposefully approaching my window.

[Pstehley]

That's actually pretty cool!

I have long believed that dolphins and whales, etc have thier own form of communication. And, given dolphins playful nature, why wouldn't they try and "jam" to communicate. We still have a lot to learn about the animal kingdom.... As for the birds, they definately have certian patterns for communication. Certian patterns mean certian things. So it is possible that what you were playing was similar in vibration to an echo of the call they were making. It's hard to say, but it's truely fascinating. When I get a moment, I'm going to look at the site and read some more...

So long and thanks for all the fish....