In modern-day society, some people define art as a diverse and creative range of human activities that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, coupled with underlying symbolic meaning. Although we are the only species that produces art and designs with symbolic value, we are not the only species that have the abilities to produce art. In fact, if we define art as creative pieces that also have aesthetic or monetary value, animals can also produce artwork.
I was watching a Youtube video the other day and stumbled upon some clips of a primate’s painting. Oftentimes, humans like to draw a huge distinction between our artistic abilities versus other species, arguing that we have innate abilities that animals lack. Even though, when the video put the primate’s painting side by side next to a human one, people could not tell which was painted by the human.
Congo, the painting primate, made over 400+ artistic pieces that were even auctioned off for over $25,000.
Congo isn’t the sole example of animal artists, as elephants and multiple other animals have also shown artistic capabilities.
Moral of the story – humans aren’t the only artists in the world.
