How intelligent are the other creatures?

[Tetrakemy 221]

In the show its only been shown "that I have seen" that only ponies have actual civilization en mass.

 

There are donkey's of course and they seem to be of pony intelligence. However, what about the others? We see goats with clip boards following iron will. Their faces make them look dumb and then they do this sort of thing.

 

 

 

 

 

however we see they know how to work machines and set up stages and stuff.

 

My real question is that I wonder why more of them are not more noticable in the world.

 

Like is there a minitaur or goat country? Or town? Or a town fully of donkey's or sheep?

 

Do they have any dominion anywhere?

[crazitaco 596]

Yeah, this is something that greatly confuses me. We see cows are capable of speech but in an odd societal role. Deer evidently are just animals. Ponies are the master race, zebras are rare but equal intelligence. Buffalo are equal intelligence, and goats are pretty stupid, don't speak but have some intelligence. Donkeys are intelligent but somewhat rare.

My theory is that it's based on how "large" the animal is, but ponies somehow became the dominant species.

Edited April 17, 2014 by crazitaco

[Tabe 216]

Little girls like talking animals, and they don't think any of it so Hasbro can cut some slack in this area.

[Unikitty 1,212]

My head-canon is simply that there are multiple nations across the planet, alongside Equestria. If I recall correctly, Equestria was formed(or for better wording, perhaps unified) by three separate clans. The joining of three nations could have resulted in their combined size becoming the predominant nation around. A sort of hub nation.

Perhaps there is a whole region of goats out to the west. All with similar levels of technology and knowledge, but simply with a different culture. Over there, you may only see a couple ponies travelling around amongst a city of goats.

In regards to cows and sheep, it would seem they have similar state of intelligence to other dominant creatures(such as ponies). Perhaps they have a deal sorted with the ponies. Perhaps they prefer a simple lifestyle, without much worry of the more advanced lifestyle. Perhaps they can speak in the universal tongue, but don't quite have the intellectual capacity to be considered an equally advanced lifestyle, and as such revert to something simpler and less taxing.

[Tetrakemy 221]

 and goats are pretty stupid, don't speak but have some intelligence.

 

Well they speak, They just speak their own native language.

 

Plus if you remember iron will episode. Who was walking around with the clipboards and working the lights? Electrical and sound equipment is ran by professionals. So they may not be as smart but certainly not stupid. 

[Fluttershutter 2,179]

Deer evidently are just animals

Have we ever actually seen deer?

[Rift enchanted 379]

Sometimes ponies just don't cut it. So Lauren get's some changelings and make them animals

[crazitaco 596]

Have we ever actually seen deer?

There's two deer shown in the episode Filli Vanili because fluttershy is trying to find the all animals homes or something.

The deer look adorable but they don't seem to show any higher intelligence.

At the very end of fluttershy's first song as flutterguy, a crowd of ponies runs and takes all the animals, including the deer.

So i guess deer are like pets in the MLP universe...

Edited April 18, 2014 by crazitaco

[CavyShy 169]

If ponies are the dominant creature, than what about elephants?

[Darker 1,351]

They are as intelligent as the writers want them to be.

[Cwanky 17,479]

Intelligence and moreso civilization are very subjective things to gauge fairly. Sticking only to the sapient creatures,sim thatply because some creatures don't live the way that humans ponies do, doesn't means they are uncivilized or unintelligent. That's taking an elitist and prejudiced view. The bison for example, are quite intelligent, yet have their own unique civilization.

 

The goats also, who seem a bit odd and lacking in many traits, are actually quite like Maud , who we've seen to be quite intelligent and articulate despite her demeanor and mannerisms.

 

Its safe and better to say that all the sapient creatures, that is those that can talk and interact socially with others of human level intelligence, are all comparatively similar in those aspects, even if individually you may find a few less than intelligent scoundrels.

[sweetolebob18 724]

Well, it is difficult to say for sure.  Here on Earth, the differences among individuals are far greater than the differences (if any) among the races.  That is, if you have 2 individuals, A & B, & want to guess "who is smarter?" knowing their race won't help.

 

In EQ, that ain't necessarily so.  Ponies just may be smarter than all the others.  But, IMO, their dominance is due more to the range & power of their magic, + flight, + sheer force of numbers (why they aren't dragon slaves) & not due to IQ.  There are definitely areas of the world where they are not in charge + Dragons seem to pay about as much attention to ponies as we do to which ant hill thinks it is in charge of what part of your back yard

[Daring_Do 552]

There seems to be a sliding scale re: animals in FiM. At the high end of the scale we have equines, griffons, etc. Below that we've got animals that seem to be intelligent but still to an extent function "normally" (cows, sheep). There are goats, which don't seem to be able to talk but have some anthropomorphic capabilities. Then there are the animals that can't even talk - but amongst these, there seems to be varying intellect (Angel seems completely sapient, for example, while Gummy - at least until Slice of Life - seemed to be an actual unintelligent animal).

[Jangocoolguy 433]

They are as intelligent as the writers want them to be.

Exactly.

 

At first I thought it was something about solid hooves vs. split hooves, but plenty of split-hoofed animals have talked at some point or another.

 

Like how there are two episode where a cow talks...in fact, I think it was the same cow both times, and she was at the wedding in "Slice of Life". The rest of the time they act like everyday cows (with the occasional gesture or expression to show they're not completely mindless). Ditto how a sheep talked in "Sisterhooves Social", but they haven't talked since. I'm not even gonna go into the deer.

 

I think it depends on what the story calls for...

[Mad Cyantist 30]

We've seen a vampire fruit bat reading a tiny little magazine, so we know they can read, even though they never speak.  It makes me wonder which species published that miniature magazine though.  It was way too small for ponies.

[cider float 2,536]

Maybe it has to do with magic. The ponies seems to have the most magic of all the other animals. The more magic you have the more civilized and intelligent you are.

 

Compare the unicorns vs. the earth ponies. Unicorns are more likely to have a higher culture and social status due to their higher level of magic.

Edited August 25, 2015 by cider float