Daily Big Cat - 9-22-14 - Bengali vs. The Puzzle Box

Natalia Borrego, a doctoral research student from the University of Miami, conducts a research experiment with Bengali and some of the other tigers around the sanctuary. Turns out, Bengali is one smart feline (but we already knew that)!

[miladyblue]

I hope this was just a teaser, and we can see the other tests, as well as the conclusions Ms. Borrego can draw from them.

It would be interesting, also, to see which of the cat species can solve these the fastest, what factors age and possibly even background could have on the results. Bengali is a trained circus tiger - so that gives him something of an edge in education, you might say. How would Zeus, for example, who was crammed into a too-small cage most of his life, with no training of any kind, do on the same test?

[MysticKitten]

Well done Bengali! It's probably his former circus training which honed his problem solving skills. Flavio was another extremely intelligent, former circus performer.
It would be great to see a longer video about these tests.

[funwithlaura]

All the big cats are my fav animals now because of you and I subscribed

[RazorClaw]

This will be interesting to see if other big cats would try to paw at the box or even break the box to get at the food.  Bengali seems more "smart' due to maybe a bit of a domestication (Sp.) but it could also be luck that he tried to bite the metal thing that had a pressure release on his attempt to figure out how to "kill" the box.

[Cronikeys]

Only a matter of time before he learns how to escape his pen hehe

[msrainbowbrite]

sometimes it saddens me when I see animals being tested.... it proves they are smarter than me

[NaturesEmperor]

What a smart feline! Solved that in seconds! Awesome video, thank you for posting! :)

[Tarawa]

Bengali has watched the keepers daily opening and closing the enclosures.  Did he solved the box's latch or just mimic what he already had observed?

[cminmd]

When do you give him the puzzle again to see if he remembers how to solve it?  Will we get to see that video?

[bigcatrescue]

We would like to extend a personal invitation to each of you to join us for daily photos of the cats on www.Facebook.com/BigCatRescue

[Elephas.maximus]

Have you done test on more tigers ?
If more than one them how many tigers solved it and in which try? And how many failed ?

[Kirame]

This is a really fun idea. Did Bengali do it again? Did you try this with other residents? It would be very interesting to see and compare their results. I hope the poor baby wasn't too startled when the door flung open <3

[MissLilyputt]

Yes, but can he unlock my phone? Seriously, can he? LoL

[ahabtheplant]

That face! The eyebrows make him look like he wouldn't leave you looking like roadkill run through a meat grinder.

I'd go squeee if I didn't know better!

[TheAlexlyth]

Do you except international volunteers?.. if so does the company sponsor visas ? someone please get back to me. thanks