Skunkushhybrid has a point.
Ants do have a very complex and ordered society. As mentioned before, the ants take slaves.
Some species of ants practice agriculture. It sounds insane, but some species have evolved symbiotic relationships that resemble the keeping of livestock. Leafcutter Ants collect plant material for certain species of fungus gnats to survive, and guard them from pests, and keep the area of their nest the gnats live in clean and free of mold. The then eat the material the gnats produce. Other ant species do the same thing with other insect species. Some capture, raise, and milk aphids, giving them the moniker "ant cows". Insects are highly evolved, using chemical signals, body language, and the like to communicate with each other. While highly evolved, I still would not consider necessarily a higher lifeform. But, that all depends on what you consider "intelligence" to be.
The case for others species is more impressive. As he mentioned, the common chimpanzee is capable of forming hunting parties and patrols. They use highly complex tools; some tribes of chimpanzee have even exhibited the technology of creating stone basic stone tools and creating crude weapons from their environment. Bonobo chimpanzees, while probably less like us in the way they operate, show more self-awareness and general intelligence than the common chimpanzee. They have highly ordered societies, which unlike the other species of chimpanzee, is extremely and completely peaceful. They use sex as a means to achieve this; for this reason, they are functionally bisexual, and they are the only other species that engages in oral sex and kissing. The Bili Ape, which scientists assume is a new subspecies descended from the common chimpanzee (though it is an isolated, small group, and will likely die out because of humans), build crude shelters somewhat like gorilla nests, walk upright most of the time, and seem to be incredibly intelligent. If it wasn't for people already being everywhere, they might have the tools to have become the dominant species on this planet.
Apes have a complex vocabularly consisting of vocal sounds and body gestures that we don't understand, particularly gorillas. This is why we are so easily able to teach higher primates logograms and sign language; they have a predisposition toward language, if you can call it that. They do not exhibit properties of human language such as complex syntax or grammar. They can, however, communicate their thoughts and desires very well. Many higher apes are self-aware (passing every self-awareness test they can take), understand basic symbolism, and feel a FULL range of emotions, in much the same way we do.
Dolphins are now assumed by some to have a full-blown language, capable of relating symbolism.
So I see what skunkushhybrid is saying. We measure other animals against our own intelligence, without often knowing the full extent of what goes on in their heads. Some scientists (primatologists, specifically) are now pushing for something called "ape-personhood" in the United Nations, which affords basic rights to higher primates, because many now believe they may be sentient, but just not quite as intelligent as us. Then again, 50 years ago they equated the intelligence of a chimpanzee with that of a dog, before Jane Goodall actually studied their behaviour.
So, who knows? Intelligence is very, very hard difficult to test for, let alone measure. We only know the way we work, and compare ever other species to this standard. With some species, this may not be the way to go about it.
~Ethno
i'm drunk today.
