Episodes

  • How Rats Learn Routes and Rules

    How Rats Learn Routes and Rules
    Sep 21 2026
    Step into the maze to see how rats learn routes, recognize patterns and adjust when rules change. The episode separates observed behavior from broader claims about intelligence. Inside this episode: - A maze is a question - Learning a route - Landmarks outside the maze - The cognitive map idea - The hippocampus Sources include Behavioral Brain Research review of rodent mazes, Cincinnati water maze methods and findings, and Landmarks and cognitive maps review. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    10 mins
  • What Elephants Remember About Their Social World

    What Elephants Remember About Their Social World
    Sep 21 2026
    Explore how elephants use long-term social knowledge to recognize calls, navigate relationships and respond to changing groups. The evidence is compelling, while the limits of what researchers can infer remain clear. Inside this episode: - A society that separates and reconnects - Recognizing a voice - The matriarch's experience - Memory through smell - The meaning of a greeting Sources include Animal Cognition, elephant memory review and Science, matriarchs as repositories of social knowledge. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    11 mins
  • How Dolphins Use Signature Whistles

    How Dolphins Use Signature Whistles
    Sep 21 2026
    How does a dolphin recognize another individual by sound? Follow the evidence behind signature whistles, including playback experiments and the limits of comparing these calls to human names. Inside this episode: - A distinctive contour - Why identity matters in water - The playback test - Can one dolphin copy another - Mothers and calves Sources include Proceedings of the Royal Society B, signature whistle recognition, NOAA repository, bottlenose dolphin voice study, and NOAA repository, signature signals in other species. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    11 mins
  • What Food-Caching Birds Remember

    What Food-Caching Birds Remember
    Sep 20 2026
    This episode explores Evidence for memory of location, food type and time in species that store food. The story keeps the mechanisms clear and the research grounded for a casual listener. Inside this episode: - Why hide food - Memory for where - Remembering what - Remembering when - Caches have audiences Sources include Problems faced by food-caching corvids, Food-caching corvid cognition review, and Social cognition by food-caching corvids. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    10 mins
  • How Bees Communicate a Food Location

    How Bees Communicate a Food Location
    Sep 20 2026
    This episode explores the waggle dance, orientation cues and experimental evidence behind its interpretation. The story keeps the mechanisms clear and the research grounded for a casual listener. Inside this episode: - The waggle circuit - Direction on a vertical comb - Distance in duration - Smell completes the message - How experiments test the code Sources include Karl von Frisch, Nobel Lecture, Current Biology review, honeybee dance communication, and Journal of Experimental Biology, honeybee navigation review. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    10 mins
  • What Octopus Learning Experiments Reveal

    What Octopus Learning Experiments Reveal
    Sep 20 2026
    This episode explores Maze, discrimination and exploration studies explained without assigning unsupported human motives. The story keeps the mechanisms clear and the research grounded for a casual listener. Inside this episode: - A very different nervous system - Visual discrimination - Touch and chemical sense - Mazes and routes - Association and memory Sources include The neural basis of visual processing in cephalopods, Cephalopod Cognition, learning and memory chapter, and Cephalopod Brains overview. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    11 mins
  • How Crows Use Tools

    How Crows Use Tools
    Sep 20 2026
    This episode explores what controlled observations reveal about tool choice, modification and flexible problem-solving. The story keeps the mechanisms clear and the research grounded for a casual listener. Inside this episode: - A specialist among crows - Choosing a functional object - Making and modifying - Reading the hook - Tools for tools Sources include Tool use at natural foraging sites, New Caledonian crows attend to multiple tool properties, and Cognitive processes in sequential tool use. This episode is a researched narrative summary. Historical records may be incomplete, translated differently, or interpreted differently by scholars. We distinguish documented facts, estimates, disputed interpretations, and later stories where material. Corrections are logged and incorporated into future editions. Follow More Than Instinct: Inside Animal Intelligence for more researched stories about the science of animal intelligence.
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    10 mins