My wife Linda and I happened upon a pair of cuttlefish while snorkeling years ago in the waters of Cozumel. These octopus and squid relatives were one animal we both truly enjoyed seeing, and I now think about her when I see one or more of them. But the two we saw that time were amazing in their ability to immediately decipher every move we made.

We had them somewhat trapped, with the coral and sponge shoreline wall behind them, and the two of us in front of them. Yes, they could have propelled themselves and probably escaped easily, but it was almost as if they chose the "cat and mouse" game of making slight alterations in their location based upon any movements we made.

It was after this experience with an invertebrate species that wasn't supposed to possess any degree of intelligence, as decided by humans, that I realized our judging criteria was faulty. Perhaps animals have a higher level of intelligence than we give them credit for.

For many years, especially with the problems they have caused for humans in Rochester and other locales, I have suggested crows might be smarter than many people. I often recite a quote by Henry Beecher, in which he says, "If Men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows." I recently read through just a few of the hundreds of Darwin Awards, which yearly cite humans "who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it." I am not sure crows, or most other animals, would do such unintelligent things.

Recently I watched a public television program, "Beaks and Brains," which featured two birds, the kea of New Zealand and the New Caledonian crow from another tropical location. Both birds display amazing feats of intelligence in the wild, as well as in a laboratory setting. What they can do appears to be actual problem-solving, not learned behavior or rote learning.

Most interesting to me was when researchers had one of each species competing independently in a contest for getting at food with increasing levels of difficulty. When the competition was completed, each had scored four points for a tie. In both cases it was obvious there was problem-solving, including tool-making or use, displayed.

Based upon conversations with others, I suspect many humans do not realize we are indeed animals, and more probably assume we are the most intelligent living organisms on Earth. The flaw with this last notion is that we are also the ones who make the rules on grading intelligence, with our bias very evident. We can even see that come into play where certain types of human intelligences are more valued than others, such as math and science versus art and music.

I think a case could be made against human intelligence being No. 1, as there is no other species that is more destructive to the environment they live in, and none I know of that kill one another to the degree we do. Neither of those attributes convey an abnormally high level of intelligence in my mind, and could possibly knock us off the top spot.

In researching animal intelligence a bit further, I found a site that listed the 15 most intelligent animals. I am not sure if they were listed in order, but it began with orangutans and ended with ants. Crows, pigs, chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, parrots, squirrels, jellyfish, raccoons, dogs, rats, spiders, and pigeons also made the list.

I tend to agree with the list, and the many examples given, including some videos, to support it. But the woman who put the list together, Analise Dubner, did not list humans. To me, that means she also does not recognize us as animals, or doesn't feel we would rank in the top 15.

I'm sure some of my readers will find this last column of 2017 to be off-base, maybe offensive. But I hope over time we will come to appreciate just how intelligent animals are. And if and when we do, we might at the same time realize that we need to be more like other animals, in balance with them and our environment, and what it takes to keep from destroying it and hastening our own extinction.