By Greg Bird

Tuesday was a bizarre news day that left me seriously wondering what our furry and feathered friends are up to. Scientists have always talked about how intelligent dolphins are, but they have been confident that other animals lacked anything but basic intelligence. But I found three stories in one day that raise questions as to just how intelligent animals are.

Pet owners will tell you that their cats and dogs are smarter than people think, but that comes from being domesticated and living among humans. But wild animals are joining the fight and I fear we may soon see an animal uprising.

The first story involves a German fisherman who died on a fishing trip. According to a Reuters report, a fisherman had hooked a fish at a lake near his home when the fish pulled the rod from his hands. The fish shook free of the hook after dragging the pole nearly 300 feet from shore, where the pole floated on the surface. The man swam after his lost tackle but had to be pulled out of the water after witnesses pulled him back to shore after he stopped moving. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The article fails to mention what type of bait the fish was using to catch the fisherman.

Shortly after receiving that article, another story came across the wire about rampaging elephants. The BBC reports that a herd of stray elephants in Zimbabwe left the cushy confines of a national park and terrorized residents of a nearby town, destroying homes and property.
Experts are at a loss to explain the behavior, noting that there was no apparent reason for the pachyderms to go psycho. Perhaps they are tired of working for peanuts (I know, bad pun) or they may want to show their human neighbors just who is the boss.

But perhaps the most alarming story that shows our animal friends are getting smarter concerns a homing pigeon in Sweden.

A resident found a pigeon sitting outside his garage the other day. He thought nothing about it, thinking it was a normal bird. But the pigeon followed him, “like a dog,” Gosta Schutzer said.
After closer examination he found it was a homing pigeon, the problem was, he didn’t own any birds. He delved deeper into the mystery and made a strange discovery that has animal experts scratching their collective heads. The bird was released by its owner, Colin Allman at a homing pigeon conference in Midwestern Sweden. The bird was supposed to fly to its home in Norway, but bad weather interrupted its flight.

What is astounding is the bird landed at Schutzer’s home, in Tangenvagen, which has a nearly identical address as Allman’s in Tangenveien. How could the bird make such a connection? Did it read street signs and say to itself, “This is close enough?”

I will keep my eyes peeled for further evidence of the animal uprising and let you know when I am heading into my bunker.