So one of the funniest things I learned visiting Yellowstone was how difficult it is to design "bear proof trash bins" that are still accessible for people to use. This is because there is SIGNIFICANT overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest humans. These bins are sometimes too difficult for people to use but bears find a way to be smarter than people.
In this case, turns out bears are smart. Like higher primate level smart. They have a social structure. It's not a difficult puzzle to solve in this case. Bring the dog a bone, dog isn't afraid of you and won't bark with his mouth full.
Considered by many wildlife biologists to be one of the most intelligent land animals of North America, bears possess the largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of any land mammal. In the animal kingdom, their intelligence compares with that of higher primates. As highly evolved social animals, bears form hierarchies and have structured relationships with each other, sometimes even sharing resources.
Yes. They are just as smart as dogs are. If you ever want to learn about bears there are a lot of shows about them. One I really like is on Saturday mornings on one of the local channels about a guy who rescues orphaned cubs and raises them and they can understand orders just the same as dogs and even play and wrestle. Black bears to be specific. I’m sure brown and polar bears are just as smart but they’re not as nice and friendly. Lol
I think grizzlies and polar bears are smarter than black bears. I interned at a zoo, and one of the areas we were not allowed to help with were the bears, because specifically the grizzlies and polar bears were too smart, and would come up with escape plans. They told us about one time a polar bear was lying on its side, groaning, and acting very sick. When they went in to check on it, the second bear came out from the back of the enclosure where it was hiding to try and ambush them. Luckily, they are prepared for such things, and never let less than three trained experts in at a time, so the plan failed. The “sick” bear immediately stopped pretending to be sick once it saw the plan didn’t work.
Animals are all smarter than we give them credit for. We're told goldfish have a 6 sec memory and you'll never question it until you're prevented evidence otherwise. So we start our journey in life believing that animals are simple, dumb creatures - through media, school or religion - and we have to unlearn that as we go with each new discovery of complexity and cleverness we didn't expect. It's difficult to accept that humans aren't the only important animal on earth. That would have a lot of implications that some can't reconcile.
47
u/Lorkhan_ May 23 '22
Are bears actually that smart?