• Recently, divers off the coast of Kona in Hawaii caught video footage of a bottlenose dolphin asking a human for help to get out of a tangle of fishing lines. The dolphin swam up to one diver as he gestured with his hand for it to come closer. The diver removed a fishing hook out of the dolphin's left pectoral fin, and at one point the dolphin had to surface for air, but it went back so that the diver could finish untangling it. [url]
• Dog owners can now figure out just how smart their dogs are with Dognition. It's a web app that lets dog owners record the results of their experiments, which involve playing games with their dogs designed to assess five dimensions of intelligence (empathy, communication, cunning, memory, and reasoning). The data collected from the Dognition project could help scientists better understand the way dogs think and behave. [url]
• Dogs are able to subtly alter the timing, pitch, and amplitude of their barks to produce a variety of sounds that could have different meanings. While humans may have trouble distinguishing between a "food growl" and a "stranger growl," studies have shown that dogs can recognize the meaning of particular barks and growls of other dogs. [url]
• Here are eight other animals that show notable signs of intelligence: Chimpanzees have DNA that is more than 98% identical to human DNA; elephants exhibit self-awareness; cephalopods are curious and have the ability to learn and use tools; crows are crafty; squirrels can be deceptive; dogs can understand people's intentions; cats are extremely adaptable; and pigs can distinguish between familiar scribbles on a screen and ones that they have never seen before. [url]

• Cows in the UK outfitted with "smart collars" can notify farmers when they're sick or in heat. The collars use the same kind of 3D sensor that is found in Wii video game controllers to detect movement. [url]
• A monkey in China with two sensor chips implanted in its brain can control a robot hand with its thoughts. The sensors monitor 200 neurons in the monkey's motor cortex, and its brain signals are translated into real-time robotic finger movements. [url]
• Alex, an African grey parrot, had mathematical abilities that were at least as good as those of chimpanzees. He had been trained to count objects, and could add two numbers up to a total sum of eight, or add two sets of objects up to a total sum of six. [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

• A prototype device for two-way communication with dolphins is going to try to talk with wild dolphins near the Florida coastline. This project is also trying to co-develop a language with dolphins, instead of trying to force a human-made language upon our flippered friends. [url]
• Pet parrots released into the wild are apparently teaching other birds how to say some human expressions. And just like high school kids learning a foreign language, these birds have picked up a lot of swear words. [url]
• Chimps that were taught sign language have been observed teaching sign language to their young. Monkey see. Monkey do! [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

The answer is "yes," with a "but":

Reuters reported the story, saying the anti-animal cruelty organization is staking its claim to peta.xxx, which will serve as an animal cruelty awareness and pornography site. Peta has pushed the limits of its animal cruelty ads often in the past with near-nudity, racy slogans and a lot of shock value.

"As soon as people land on the site they will see some explicit content, those tantalizing images that they'll be hoping for," Rajt said of the site's content. As they go deeper into the site, however, visitors will find graphic images of animal abuse.

"It can be a pretty depressing subject," Rajt said about animal cruelty, "We hope it'll grab people's attention, get them talking, and ultimately get them to ask questions."

• Here's a list of 9 other species that exhibit some form of intelligence that we've actually observed. It'd be a more impressive list if there were a way to really quantify and rank the varying degrees of intelligence, but then humans might not look so good on such a scale... [url]
• I think someone snuck in their pet dog into this photo gallery of smart animals (all with human-granted names). Apsalah the orangutan seems a bit over-represented, too. [url]
• A few types of parasitic fungus can turn ants into zombie-slaves. Maybe it's not intelligence, but these fungi are often cited as an example of intelligent design (though doesn't explain why an intelligent designer would ever create such a roundabout process). [url]
• To discover more biological phenomena, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]