Sioux Falls Zoologists

"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent!"

The mirror test is an experiment developed in 1970 by psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. to determine whether an animal possesses the ability to recognize itself in a mirror. It is the primary indicator of self-awareness in non-human animals and marks entrance to the mirror stage by human children in developmental psychology. Animals that pass mirror test are: Humans older than 18 mo, Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Orangutans, Gorillas, Bottlenose Dolphins, Orcas (Killer Whales), Elephants, and European Magpies. Others showing signs of self-awareness are Pigs, some Gibbons, Rhesus Macaques, Capuchin Monkeys, some Corvids (Crows & Ravens) and Pigeons w/training. (Sorry Kitty!)

Sioux Falls Zoologists endorse Intelligence in Nature for showing
how intelligence in life naturally arises as life evolves over time.

Intelligence in Nature
 An Inquiry Into Knowledge
By Jeremy Narby

Intelligence in Nature (2005) - 257 pages
Intelligence in Nature at Amazon.com

Continuing the journey begun in his acclaimed book The Cosmic Serpent, the noted anthropologist ventures firsthand into both traditional cultures and the most up-to-date discoveries of contemporary science to determine nature's secret ways of knowing.

Anthropologist Jeremy Narby has altered how we understand the Shamanic cultures and traditions that have undergone a worldwide revival in recent years. Now, in one of his most extraordinary journeys, Narby travels the globe - from the Amazon basin to the Far East - to probe what traditional healers and pioneering researchers understand about the intelligence present in all forms of life.

Intelligence in Nature presents overwhelming illustrative evidence that independent intelligence is not unique to humanity alone. Indeed, bacteria, plants, animals, and other forms of nonhuman life display an uncanny penchant for self-deterministic decisions, patterns, and actions. The Japanese researchers already possess a term for this "knowingness" of the natural world: chi-sei (pronounced Chee-Say).

Narby presents the first in-depth anthropological study of this concept in the West. He not only uncovers a mysterious thread of intelligent behavior within the natural world but also probes the question of what humanity can learn from nature's economy and knowingness in its own search for a saner and more sustainable way of life.

Jeremy Narby, Ph.D., grew up in Canada and Switzerland, studied history at the University of Canterbury, and received his doctorate in anthropology form Stanford University. He is the author of The Cosmic Serpent, and the coeditor of Shamans Through Time.

Intelligence in Nature
 An Inquiry Into Knowledge
By Jeremy Narby

Sioux Falls Zoologists endorse Intelligence in Nature for showing
how intelligence in life naturally arises as life evolves over time.