Hands and the Brain

Many animals use their front paws like hands.

A squirrel or a hamster will hold a nut in its front paws, and a dog holds down a bone while gnawing it, and so do lions and tigers.

A kangaroo will use its dainty fore-feet to hold its leaves it its eating or to scratch its stomach.

Moles and badgers use their "hands" for digging, a monkey uses its hands, and feet, all the time.

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It is the co-ordination of hand and brain, the way they are used together, which is the mark of intelligence.

The top order of the mammals is called the primates, and includes monkeys, apes and Man.

These have the most highly developed hands which they use in varying degrees under the direction of the brain.

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The apes - chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-outangs, which are Man's nearest cousins in the animal kingdom, have  remarkable co-ordination between brain and hand.

A chimpanzee will put one box on top of another to climb up something.

It has been known to join two sticks together to make a longer one and reach fruit.

Apes in the wild state have been seen using bunches of leaves like sponges, to soak up water from a difficult place, and then squeezing it into their mouths.

Intelligence depends on using the brain to think and reason, instead of relying only on natural instincts.