Cunc-
In other words, it's not curiosity, its knowledge generation.
What is knowledge? Hobbes does not refer to written knowledge specifically. I'm sure you will find plenty of people (including myself) who would argue for quite a bit of "knowledge generation" in the animal kingdom.
This discussions leads us nowhere, though -- I'm not trying to make a substantial point regarding whether Hobbes is right or wrong, I'm trying to show that people may disagree with what he had to say, and that it is therefore POV.
Regards,
Erik