Nature: Inside the Animal Mind
A fascinating website which examines one of the most challenging areas in biology: to what extent are the non-human members of the animal kingdom intelligent, and can they be described as conscious? People have strong views on these topics, for all kinds of reasons, and this site has the potential to provoke some interesting arguments on both sides…
Animal cognition is a big subject, and there’s a lot of material out there for an interested websurfer to browse. Bringing together that material in a straightforward way is a difficult business, but this site does a good job, with in-depth reading, pictures, movies, and even audio interviews with scientists in the field. Listen to experts like Dr Jane Goodall talk about animal intelligence, and Professor Marian Dawkins explaining the difficulties with studying emotion.
The site makes extensive use of the latest browser plug-ins to bring you the information in a far better way than the average website would. Interactive Shockwave presentations and games are spread liberally through the site’s main sections, mixing information with entertainment so that all types of visitor can find something they’ll appreciate.
As for the answers to the big “can animals think?” questions - it’s hard to sum up, even in the space of a whole website. The differences between “complex behaviour”, “learning” and “intelligence” are tough to pin down, and so the main conclusion of the site appears to boil down to another question: “what do YOU think?” Very clever.