Anyone who has watched film of a pack of wild dogs on the hunt must have marvelled at the quality of collective intelligence at work. It seems something quite different in find from whatever it is that drives bees to construct their elaborate geometrical honeycombs, or the architectural ingenuity of termites, with their lofty air-conditioned towers.
More impressive again is the ability of elephants to identify, from inaudible subterranean rumblings alone, known individuals too far away to see, or their ability to calculate the direction of rain a hundred miles distant.
Then there is the proven power of birds such as parrots and kookaburras to engage in meaningful use of imitated human language, or of human-raised chimps to read and respond to words they have been taught by pointing at TV screens and to communicate in basic phrases using a keyboard.