Fish are more intelligent than we think they are. They can recognise human faces. This is the conclusion of a study. Scientists from Oxford and Queensland have demonstrated that archerfish can quickly learn to recognise a picture of a human face and distinguish it from 43 alternatives. They picked the right face 80% of the time even when the faces are not complete. The fish can recognise subtle differences. We cannot presume that fish have evolved to recognise human faces. This must be a learned process and they learn fast. In addition some fish learn faster than others indicating a variable in IQ levels between individual fish. Sounds human to me.

Archerfish

We tend to treat fish as objects because so many millions or billions of them are killed annually to feed us. They are not really living creatures to many people. There are many other examples of animals being more intelligent than we had thought. Daily we hear of new studies, new tests, which confirm this.

We read stories about the intelligence of dolphins and elephants. We have also read the story of the jail breaking octopus who in April waited for his keepers to go home before he slithered out of his tank, across the floor and squeezed himself down a long drain to reach the sea. Surely, this octopus must be described as being intelligent.

We must, therefore, respect our domestic cats more highly. Many people do respect their domestic cat highly but there are still many people who don’t. They still think of a cat as “just a cat”. There is more going on in the cat brain that we know about.

For too long, the arrogance of the eternally lost and fearful human has refused to believe that any other animal on the planet is intelligent. They are just there to serve us and we can do with them what we please. That is the thought of many. It is an incorrect thought. It is an arrogant, ignorant thought. It is time for change.