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aliens - Short story or novel about humans colonizing a planet with bear-like natives, removing their brains


Humans are on a planet that they are colonizing. There are bearlike natives. The natives pass lots of IQ test including putting out a fire with a rug. A human who tries that test fails, asking how he was to know it was fireproof. He is a visitor to the planet. He is shocked to be shown brains that have been removed, killing the intelligent natives. The humans were removing the brains and killing the natives. I think I read it about 20 years ago. It was in English. It might have been part of an anthology of short science fiction stories.


Near the start the visiting human was trying out the IQ tests designed for the natives. A room was set up with physical problems to solve. The visiting human failed some and was told the natives had all passed them.


When the human first saw the brains, he did not realize the natives had been killed to get them. He said something like that he assumed they had taken samples from several brains and combined them. He was shocked that the humans were killing the intelligent natives.


I think it was early in the book. Approximately the third story.




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