PUFFERFISH ARTISTRY

 I'm totally fascinated by what animals can do in terms of intelligence and/or design.

To attract a female fish, the Japanese Puffer Fish will work 24 hours a day, for an entire week in a row, to create the most stunning sand art. This astonishing video from BBC Earth gives us glorious look at nature and fish in particularly. 

When I was a child and went fishing with my Dad and his friend on Port Phillip Bay we caught local pufferfish which were called "Toadies" and which had poisonous spikes protuding from their bodies. We had to cut them loose and avoid getting spiked at the same time.

I believe the Japanese ones are a related species and can be eaten if prepared properly, but I don't think our local "Toadies" created a mandala such as theirs... but who knows? We weren't looking for mandalas!

Many people say that when animals create something like this their ability or skill is "innate", which means only that they are born with this facility... like the male bower bird who creates a stage of the most ornate and intricate design, or like an octopus who carries two halves of a discarded coconut shell to hide inside.

But the word "innate" seems to me to be a cop-out. It's like saying :

"It was just born like that and we don't have to question it further."

Or:

"God made it to be like that!"

However I'm certain that traits and behaviour evolve in creatures just as colouring of their fur or their feathers evolve.

I "believe" or "think" that different creatures evolve behaviour pattens which are not the same as some others which are very closely related  members of the same species. Magpies in one region may perform a different "song" than magpies from another region.

I also feel that the "facility" to build a bower, or to create a sand mandala underwater, must have started somewhere, and then spread from the activity of a certain ancestor which was copied or mimiced by others nearby until it became typical behaviour for members of that group in that region, but not necessarily for others who were remote from them.

But this all comes back to one question: "Why are humans loath to ascribe intelligence to other creatures?"  By this I mean, except for their pets!

And then of course there's that other difficult question:

"How tiny and insignificant can a lifeform be and still show some signs of intelligence?"

How do certain "slime moulds" know which food to accept and which to bypass in a petri dish?

PT