9/27/2004: Beached pygmy whale calf

[garnet]

Originally Posted by Target

Will you argue that people are more intelligent than whales? People do stupid things that cause themselves harm. Is it not imaginable that a creature of less intelligence might do the same thing?

People are more intelligent in some ways than animals such as whales. No, a whale can't write a novel or program a computer, but there's a helluva lot of things animals can do that people can't. I'm still amazed at dogs and their sense of smell. It may not be that they are more intelligent than humans, but in that particular respect they are superior to us. I know almost zero about whales, but I'm guessing they're superior to humans in certain ways as well. To blame a whale beaching itself solely on the animal's "stupidity" is, in my opinion, unintelligent.