Probably the biggest question that researchers in animal cognition are asked is 也许动物认知研究人员被问到的最大问题是  how do we go about ranking animals in terms of their intelligence or their cognitive abilities.我们如何根据动物的智力或认知能力对其进行等级划分。I think the honest answer is that it's a bit of a fool's errand.我认为诚实的答案是，这是一个徒劳无益的事。You can't really do it because animals have evolved to be good at the things that they need to be good at in their natural environments.这是不可能的，因为动物已经进化成擅长做它们在自然环境中需要擅长做的东西。Even in humans, it's very difficult to say what is intelligence.即使是人类的智力，什么是智力也很难说。How do we define it?我们如何定义智力？How do we explore it?我们如何对其进行探索？I think when it comes to animals,我想，说到动物，it's even more challenging to kind of find ways to explore how they see their environment and how they solve problems.找到了解它们如何看待周遭环境和解决问题的方法甚至更具有挑战性。We have to remember, for example, humans can't ecolocate, so in a sense, you can't really judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree as we say.我们必须记住，比如，人类不能回声定位，所以从某种意义上说，我们不能像我们所说的那样，用爬树的能力去判断一条鱼。But it is very interesting when they surprise us.但当它们给我们带来惊喜的时候是非常有趣的。So when they do something that we might not necessarily expect them to be able to do, but they can do.所以我觉得是它们做一些我们不一定觉得它们能做的事情，但是他们却可以做到的时候。I have no idea that a human could train a bee. It's a bit like training a dog.我不知道人类能训练蜜蜂。这有点像训练狗。They'll make mistakes at first when learning something new, and then eventually she will get most of the choices correct.当它们刚开始学习一些新东西时，它们会犯错误，但是最终，它们会做对大部分选择。And you end up rooting for that bee.最后，你会抱有期待，希望它能成功。The thing that really amazed me over time, more and more, is just simply how good dogs are in general.随着时间的推移，真正令我越来越惊讶的是一个简单的事实--狗这种动物是多么的优秀。And now I'm talking about dog as a population, not specific individuals, but all dogs.我指的是狗这个群体，不是某个狗，而是所有的狗。How good they are in figuring us out, like kind of reading us,它们如此擅长弄清我们的心思，就像能读懂我们一样，understanding what we want them to do and where we want them to go and all these kinds of things,它们也擅长了解我们想让它们做什么，想让它们去哪里，以及诸如此类的事情，and I think that's remarkable.我觉得这很了不起。The honey bee at end of the day is an insect with 960,000 cells in her brain.蜜蜂，归根结底，是只有960,000个脑细胞的昆虫。I'm very surprised of the level of sophistication it exhibits, considering it's an insect with so few cells in its brain.因为想到它是一种大脑细胞很少的昆虫，所以我对它所表现出的复杂程度感到非常惊讶。When people ask me why do you study spiders and spider webs, the answer is pretty simple.人们问我为什么你研究蜘蛛和蜘蛛网时，我的答案很简单。Imagine you were a spider, size of a human, and you were to make a web like the spider does, it will be the size of a cricket pitch.想象一下你是一只人类大小的蜘蛛，你要是要像蜘蛛那样织一张网，网的大小会和板球场差不多大。And, in terms of strengths from the material, it would be able to catch small airplanes.而且，从网的粘度来看，你织的网可以粘住小型飞机。You just think about that, that's very interesting.你想想看，真的很有趣。

The way that they are able to navigate their environment that changes at a rapid pace and can change to really extreme degrees, I think, 我认为，动物们应对快速变化的环境，以及有时变化巨大的环境的方式，  requires a very different type of intelligence than we humans have to rely on. 需要它们具备的智力应该与人类必须依赖的智力有所区别。