Bozeman Philosopher Gets into the Minds of Animals

by Evelyn Boswell

6/26/01 BOZEMAN --  Gordon Brittan never used to think animals had minds. A horse was a horse, after all. And man was man.

But the Montana State University philosopher believes differently these days. For a variety of reasons, he now accepts the mental life of "other animals." He sees deceptive behavior when his horses pretend to graze while sidling up to bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds. He wonders how his dogs know whether he's going to drive around his ranch, motor into nearby Livingston or head all the way into Bozeman.

"It's obvious animals think," commented Brittan, who has written papers and given speeches on the topic. Brittan is a professor of philosophy and director of the Burton K. Wheeler Center.

Brittan changed his outlook a few years ago after he was asked to speak on the mind of the grizzly bear. As he prepared his speech, he realized that grizzlies cache their food, which indicated belief, design and memory. Contributing to his transformation was the book "Consciousness Explained." In it, Daniel Dennett wrote that antelope "have no secrets and no way of getting any. So an antelope is probably no more capable of hatching a secret plan than it is capable of counting to a hundred or enjoying the colors of a sunset."

"'Gosh, I have been watching antelope for 25 years, and they do have secrets.'" Brittan said to himself. "What I had in mind in particular was that a doe will leave her fawn in tall grass, relatively hidden. If a predator appears in her field of vision, she will make concentric circles larger and larger to draw the predator away."

Brittan admits that animals and humans have a hard time communicating with each other. But even if he concedes that animals have no language, he still believes they have some degree of rationality. It's also possible to get into their minds, Brittan said. Look at Native American hunters or "anthropomorphic trainers" like Robert Redford's character in "The Horse Whisperer."

"It's much easier to put ourselves in the minds of other human beings, but it's not that easy," Brittan said. "... It's much more difficult with other animals, but it's not impossible."

Matt Moffet of the Petcetera store in Belgrade said he believes animals have low levels of intelligence. But as a cockatiel gave wolf whistles in the background, Moffet said birds are definitely the smartest animals he's seen. Some of the larger parrots are bilingual, and he's heard of a raven counting to nine. He noted that fish swim to the top of their tanks when they're expecting food.

Dr. Rebecca Mattix, a Bozeman veterinarian, said she's seen cats that were trained to sit, retrieve on command and use a toilet. She's watched dogs and cats display both long-term and short-term memory.

"If you don't have a brain, how can you learn?" she asked. "If you don't have a memory of prior events, how can you train? You can say that's a conditioned response, but that still is having a mind and thinking. It isn't all instinctive. You can teach animals to do things in our world that they would never ever have to do or be inclined to do in their instinctive environment."

Brittan said it would be hard to prove his theories about animals. Especially if he used wild animals instead of his cattle, antelope, two dogs and 18 American quarter horses. But he still wonders how a dog he once owned learned the names of his horses. All Brittan had to do was say, "Get Misty," and it would.

"Scientific? No. Controlled circumstances? No. But a number of people saw this," Brittan said. "It did this on a regular basis."

Brittan's newfound thoughts have raised a whole new set of questions for him. As for their effect on his life, Brittan said he plans to continue raising cattle, but will work to improve slaughter conditions in the industry.

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