Animal Intelligence, the limits of nature.

Nature impresses us with its capacities, discoveries on animal intelligence are made every year. We have learnt from apes, dolphins, killer whales and many others that we are not the only ones with such skills.  

Alex, or the Avian Language Experiment , was a Gray African Parrot and one of these wonders. It is well known that parrots can talk, but Alex took this ability to a higher level. Being part of a thirty-year experiment, his behavior generated lots and lots of data, data that has not been completely analyzed yet. This study makes suggestions about the cognitive, emotional and linguistic capacities of the subject.

Another case is Koko, the Gorilla. She is a famous talking  ape, which through a series of gestures is able to communicate with human beings. Along years other gorillas were included in this experiment, scientists were amazed when one of them, called Mike, related the history of his family and how her mother had been killed. Mike makes us question how does the memory of animals work.

We can see how these animals start to get closer to that thin line we thought we were the first and only to cross, the line of feelings and emotions and humanity. Alex was able to express desires and to reason at the level of a five-year-old, Koko have told her keepers that she wants to have a baby and Mike cries when he is asked about his family. Have these animals learnt this behavior? Do they have a conscience? What is that that makes us human?