12 things I learned from "The Creative Lives of Animals" by Carol Gigliotti
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1. Animals make up their own games and songs
2. Chickens show empathy and have at least 30 different vocalizations
3. Solving goals, such as finding food or attracting a mate requires creativity
4. Creativity does not necessarily require an outcome: it can be a thought experiment
5. You can consider creativity at many levels from the individual to the entire ecosystem
6. There are stray dogs in Moscow that know how to ride the subway
7. Pigeons can understand and think in analogies
They can learn to play games to get treats
8. Don’t measure animals' creative output against humans: they won’t write a symphony but they can create social systems and other creative output
9. Prairie dogs have unique voices and they also have a “language “ that can describe the type of predator and where they are coming from. They created a new word for a novel shape introduced to them in an experiment.
10. Animals use language and not just mammals
11. Elephants communicate using sub-sonic sounds (low frequencies) that can be detected over 12 miles: they have very sensitive feet!
12. Play is an important precursor to problem solving
As an example a chimpanzee that played with sticks was later able to use sticks to retrieve food.
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