The Native Intelligence in a Forest

Some types of pine trees will only germinate after the seed cone has been burned in a wildfire.  Maybe you know of that one already as part of the way the forest recovers after a fire.  That's not the only way and certain mushrooms 'know' how to respond as well.  (Science Daily:  Morel mushrooms pop up, cluster together after wildfires)

Here's another one:

Avid mushroom hunters will tell you that fire is essential for finding morel mushrooms. These fungi, distinguishable for their dark, honeycomblike caps, pop out of the ground by the bushel in spring after a large wildfire.

- Science Daily

We don't have a biological epiphany to offer since scientists have not yet discovered what triggers them.  They have confirmed the response after a fire from morels is real but there's no clear sign of what about the fire makes the morels start growing.

Possibly the fire triggers germination with the pine cones by breaking down the exterior of it allowing the interior seed to 'escape' but the researchers didn't see a mechanism of that nature for the morels.

The mycelium will get us to the sci fi part:

The part of the mushroom you pick and eat is actually its fruit. Most of the fungus lives underground as a connected, threadlike structure known as mycelium. Certain conditions such as fire prompt some species of morels to fruit, but their affinity for fire and other environmental factors is largely a mystery.

- Science Daily

Mycelium is regarded by some although usually not scientists to be the largest intelligent organism on the planet.  The spread of it can be quite large apparently connecting enormous numbers of mushrooms over a wide area.

You can pull some sci fi from that but probably not a horror movie since the mycelium probably won't destroy all humanity by giving us more mushrooms to eat.

We don't need sci fi for this since it shows one more aspect of the Great Circle of Life in which a whole lot more of it is intelligent than we realize.  Briefly, here's another one as wild chimpanzees teach their young ones about tools.  (Science Daily: Wild chimpanzee mothers teach young to use tools)

"We found that mother chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle teach by transferring termite-fishing probes to their offspring," Musgrave said.  "In this population, chimpanzees select specific herb species to make their fishing probes, and they produce probes that have a particular brush-tipped design.  By sharing tools, mothers may teach their offspring the appropriate material and form for manufacturing fishing probes."

- Science Daily

There's nothing I need to tell you from that one when you can see for yourself and then we can sit back to marvel at the majestic parade of life.

Scientists discover almost routinely there is intelligence all over the animal kingdom and that makes the slaughter of dolphins and whales by the Japanese all the more unconscionable.  'I was hungry' is not even close to an excuse for killing an intelligent creature and the Japanese are at least intelligent creatures enough to be fully cognizant of that yet they do it anyway.

If it's their choice to make that kind of brutality a cultural trademark, so be it.  They're well on the way to that now.  After what they did to China, they were well on their way to a lock on that trademark already.