Does anyone remember the name of a book that came out a few years ago (exerpt in Readers Digest, I lost the scrap I wrote the title on) that looked at animal intelligence in terms of their ability to problem solve in order to achieve their own needs. He didn't attempt a scientific approach but used information from trainers, keepers, etc.
Includes anecdotes like the orangutan who sound a piece of wire and not only learned to pick the simple padlock of his cage but kept the wire hidden, often in his cheek, for a few weeks. Left the keepers mystified as to how he and the other orangs kept getting out of their night cages.
The most amazing story to me was of the orca, unused to swimming with trainers, which without instruction held position in its pool while a trainer climbed on its head to free the sling which had jammed holding its calf a few feet above the water. It made me reassess my ideas about animal's ability to think in terms of future possible and to conceive solutions.
