Are humans the most intelligent beings on Earth? Till centuries and eons the answer to this question has been an obvious “yes”. From the time of the invention of the wheel and the beginning of a technical revolution, human beings have been regarded the most intelligent animals existing on planet Earth. In fact in the Earth’s life of 4600 million years and the history of human existence on earth, it has been consistently believed that humans are the most intelligent beings on earth. We have given ourselves titles like “a social animal”, “a civilized animal” and so on.  But here’s the real truth.

According to science, the larger the brain, the more intelligent a being is, we always happen to compare the intelligence of an animal by the brain-body ratio. This is the only criterion which proves that we are the most intelligent as our brain comprises 2% of the total body mass. But this is not what matters. What matters is the brain size. This is the area where cetaceans like whales and orcas score better. Among the brains that have evolved on Earth, sperm whales have the largest with an area of 9000 cubic centimeters and weight of 7.8 kilos. On the other hand, orcas have brains that weigh 5 kilos on an average. If we go by the brain body ratio in cetaceans, the brain comprises 0.02% of the total body mass as most of the animal is blubber, and this has nothing to do with brain power and distorts the ratio somewhat. Nevertheless, this is not a crucial criterion. As already evident from extensive research done on the brains of all mammals, there has been no one ranging from mice to men to have a 4th lobe to the brain other than whales. The convulsions on the neo-cortex area are more pronounced on cetaceans than on humans. On the whole, cetaceans have a more complex brain than us.

Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an organization which focuses on saving the endangered marine species says that whales are more intelligent than human beings. What supports this is that the size of a cetacean brain compared to human beings. Their brains are more complex than humans due the 4th lobe, as mentioned earlier. They have a complex communication form, which can only be defined as language by human beings.

However, cetacean brains don’t have technology. And this is what makes us say that they are not intelligent. Since the epoch we have developed technology, we have essentially dismissed  the non-manipulative intelligences from our characterization of intelligence. Captain Watson has stated several times that he believes that cetaceans like whales are far more intelligent than us. The cause behind his saying is whales know how to live in harmony with the natural world. Why, they don’t butcher each other for materialistic needs like human beings.

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While watching Whale Wars, I came across one very crucial thing said about the character of whales by a crew member of Sea Shepherds when the factory ship Nisshin Maru along with Yushin Maru 1,2 and 3 were circling the Steve Irwin in the Antarctic. It was said that whales trust you, and that’s why they come near to ships in their habitat. They come in the intention of doing friendship with human race because they never know what some Japanese whaling fleets like Nisshin Maru will do to them. Taking advantage of their innocence and trust, the whaling fleets harpoon them. That’s totally thoughtless to slay someone who trusts you. This proves that not only whales are butchered but also their trust on mankind is also brutally butchered. I will say that whales are more thoughtful than the whole human race!

To sum up, I would say that we should now start to respect the creations of the omnipotent Almighty and understand that the greed of fulfilling our materialistic need is going to destroy the oceans and seas we are dependent on for our survival. And we should change our definition of intelligence and think that intelligence is not all about technology and development. Its about living in harmony with nature and not exploiting her resources for the sake of Mother Earth’s and the whole human race’s survival.

By

Name: Anannya Chakra

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Email: anannya30-at-gmail.com