Some animals are constantly proving themselves to be capable of thought, empathy and intelligence in ways we never expected. Our increasing understanding of the minds of animals continues to shock us. What’s becoming more and more obvious is that there aren’t just some highly intelligent animals, but rather a vast number, all of whom demonstrate their intelligence in unique ways. The animal kingdom is filled with brainiacs. We find behaviours previously thought to be unique to humans reflected in distantly related species and see animals using their brains as a superpower.
As the researchers continue making strides in the field of animal intelligence, one thing seems to keep emerging: that animals are smarter than we expect.
Here, we dive into the world of the smartest animals, exploring their unique capabilities and the science behind their brainpower.
1. Dolphins
Dolphins are one of the smartest species on the planet; they are highly capable of both learning and mimicry.
Dolphins in different pods use mud to make traps and sponges for protection against coral as they search for food, demonstrating their ability to use tools and manipulate their surroundings. Dolphin pods alter their hunting locations and time to adapt to or avoid new human activities, like construction.
2. Pigeons
Pigeons have proved they can recognize their reflection which shows a complex sense of self-awareness. They can recognize specific people and places over months and even years. That memory is precisely why pigeons carry messages over great distances to serve for centuries. They can recognize all of the letters of the English alphabet, and they can even recognize the difference between two people in pictures.
3. Rat
The rat is a highly intelligent yet much-maligned animal in Western cultures. But in Chinese culture, the rat is well-regarded for its cunning resourcefulness and good reason. They have successfully colonized every continent on Earth except for Antarctica.
Mostly used in research, the lab rat has been known to find shortcuts, loopholes and escape routes in laboratory experiments designed by the top scientific minds of our time. Highly trained rats have saved thousands of lives by sniffing out landmines around the world and detecting tuberculosis (TB) in humans.
Rats trained at a Tanzania-based nonprofit organization, Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling in Dutch and Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development in English – have destroyed 108,736 unexploded ordinances and landines and detected 18300 cases of TB.
It takes a rat 30 minutes to check the area of a tennis court for mines, a task that a human could take at least four days with a metal detector, APOPO says. A rat takes 20 minutes to check 100 sputum samples for TB, while a lab technician might take up to four days using conventional tests. If that wasn’t impressive enough, rats can also learn to play hide and seek game.
4. Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees and bonobos are fiercely smart creatures with complex social hierarchies. That’s not soo surprising, considering they share 98.7 per cent of their DNA with humans. Chimpanzees are famous for their amazing variety of tool use and both species are excellent problem solvers.
The Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp found that bonobos were better at solving puzzles than chimpanzees, beating them in intelligence tests. However, this appeared to be largely down to the persistence of one individual bonobo.
Behavioural biologist Jeroen Stevens noted at the time that most of the bonobos and chimps understood the puzzles but weren’t equally motivated to solve them.
5. Raccoon
Raccoons may gravitate to the garbage, but they’re also super intelligent. In the early 20th century, research conducted by H.B. David, an ethologist proved that raccoons are great lock pickers who can easily find moved or rotated devices! “Trash pandas” also boast amazing memories and can remember puzzle solutions even for up to three years!
Raccoons learn at a faster rate than other animals and are thought to be smarter than dogs and even smarter than a toddlers. They are excellent at adapting their behaviour and learning new things. Raccoons have been seen using tools, washing their food, and using their vocal language.
6. African Gray Parrots
Best known for their ability to repeat words and phrases after only hearing them once or twice, these birds’ intelligence goes much deeper than simple mimicry. In a 2019 study, researchers did a classic test of the African Gray Parrot often used to measure logic and reasoning in young humans. The parrot was presented with two cups; one contained a hidden treat, and the other was empty. When shown which cup was empty, the parrot correctly chose that the reward must be beneath the lid of the other cup. Humans can’t develop this ability to make “inferences through exclusion” until they’re about two-and-a-half years old. However, the parrot’s test went even further.
The team incorporated more cups to make the logical games even more complicated, and the parrot continued to pick the correct cups, sometimes even “gambling” in hopes of finding his favourite treat (a single Skittle) over a less enticing nut. Throughout these tests, the African Gray Parrot completed better than most five-year-old humans do.
7. Crows
Crows are another smart animal species that have also worked as messengers much like pigeons. They can use complicated group tactics when in combat with other animals like flanking manoeuvres. Crows have an impressive memory and they can also learn speech. Researchers have noticed crows’s instances of altering migration patterns to avoid dangerous areas. Also, they have even gotten caught memorizing garbage schedules and routes to steal a quick bite to eat from the trucks!
Crows have the largest brains of all avian species, and they have shown the capability to recognize human faces. They also can use tools despite their obvious lack of hands and arms; in fact, the New Caledonian crow makes a knife to more easily separate leaves and grass. They also use a hook and line to get at hard-to-reach food sources.
8. Ravens
Ravens are very smart birds, and, in part because of it, they are associated with omens in many cultures. Ravens have greater planning skills than human toddlers. One study says that they could choose a key from an array of objects that could be used to open a special box with a treat inside. They could find the correct key 90 per cent of the time — and patiently wait a whopping 17 hours for the opportunity to use it to get a treat.
9. Octopus
The brain of an octopus is proportionally as large as some mammals’ brains, but it displays a high level of organisation, which helps it avoid predators and catch its prey. However, its camouflage and shape-shifting abilities reveal only a fraction of this amazing creature’s brainpower. Although its nervous system includes a central brain, 3/5 of the nerves are distributed throughout its 8 arms which serve as 8 mini-brains. Well, no wonder it’s so smart.
A video captured an octopus pulling 2 halves of coconut shells, which it later used as shelter. The smart animal knows the shells will come in handy at a future date.
Octopuses show the same intelligence when brought into science labs. Researchers confirmed that octopi could be found in individual humans despite them wearing identical uniforms. The animals behaved differently around the person who fed them and the person who touched them with a bristly stick – something we humans would do.
10. Dogs
This is not surprising, we all know how smart our pets can be. Dogs and cats let us know what they want and seemingly manipulate us into getting their way. Researchers discovered in 2017 that dogs have twice the number of neurons in their cerebral cortexes than cats, which should give them a cognitive advantage and confirm anecdotal reports that dogs are easier to train.
The study of Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, also found that based on neurons, racoons also have similar capabilities to dogs. But don’t worry, cat owners, the study highlighted the need for systematic cognitive capacity comparisons across all three animals before ruling dogs are the smartest pets.
11. Bees
When a team is comprised of 50,000 bees working shoulder to shoulder, democratic delegation and decision-making are vital. And it’s those qualities that keep bees alive and thriving. The intelligent insects have perfected the art of cooperation, landing them on our smartest animals on Earth list.
Bees have been studied extensively and researchers are amazed at their smartness. Bees can do simple arithmetic, have a rich emotional life and communicate in dance language.
They’re also non-violent — another intelligence indicator. For example, when scout bees don’t agree with new hive locations, they have a dance-off instead of fighting to the death! How civilized — and fun!
12. Elephants
Have you ever heard the phrase “an elephant never forgets,” it’s not just an expression. Various scientific accounts display the powerful recall that elephants possess. For example, in 1999 two old elephants were reunited at a sanctuary in Tennessee, the pair were so excited to see each other that they could hardly contain their euphoria, according to Carol Buckley, the founder of the sanctuary. Later she did some research to find out how the two females—named Jenny and Shirley—knew each other. She got to know that some 23 years earlier, they had crossed paths in the circus.
Elephants are also great problem solvers, as proved by research about 10 years ago in which a male elephant used trial and error to manipulate his surroundings so that he could reach previously inaccessible food (yet another animal observed using tools!).
13. Pigs
Despite a reputation for gluttony and poor hygiene, pigs are highly intelligent animals. While dogs are more smart comparable to toddlers, pigs operate at a much higher IQ level. They can understand the concept of reflection at only six weeks old; that is something that takes human children several months to comprehend.
Pigs also know approximately 20 different sounds that they use to communicate with others, and mother pigs sing to their children while they are feeding. Pigs respond to emotion and even show empathy for other animals and even for humans which is an extremely rare trait in the animal kingdom.
14. Cats
Though research into cat intelligence is relatively sparse —- in large part because cats generally don’t make very willing participants — what we do know is that cats excel in a variety of areas. The one thing that we know the most about is how they perceive the world. While perception may not be directly connected to cognition in most of the research that’s been done, understanding how cats experience the world sets us up to better study their intelligence.
For example, we know cats depend heavily on smell, so when researchers are evaluating the bond a cat has with people, or how cats interact with each other, smell must be included as a metric. The research done on cats establishes that they can differentiate between different people and tell the difference between different quantities of objects.
15. Squirrel
Eastern grey squirrels dig holes, pretend to hide their food in them and run off to another secret place to stash their food.
This animal’s dogged impeccable and persistent memory has made it the nemesis of gardeners everywhere. Most squirrels display an amazing array of tricks and strategies that help them survive, which researchers believe shows an advanced level of intellect and cunning. For starters, these intelligent species are essentially woodland animals that have adapted to living alongside humans, eating out of flower gardens, bird feeders, and whatever food might be lying around.
If you’re a fan of the “Ice Age” films, you know how important an acorn is for Scrat, the sabre tooth squirrel. Well, it’s no different in real life. So much so that Eastern grey squirrels dig holes, pretend to hide their food in them and run off to other secret places to stash their food. This is known as deceptive caching, and they do this to confuse the thieves.
On the other hand, Tree squirrels use a technique called “spatial chunking” to sort their nut pile by type, size, and perhaps its taste and nutritional value. This helps them find the food when they get hungry. They can also store and cache food for leaner times and then find their hidden morsels many months later.
The Bottom Line
Researchers are very surprised by the intelligence of these smartest animals. The realization of how capable and intelligent animal species are challenges the way we treat and interact with animals in our daily lives.
These discoveries inevitably pose the question of whether an animal who is as smart as a human toddler should spend their life in cages as someone’s pet or research subject — let alone be served as dinner. Given the evidence, challenging the way that we think about animals and the role they play in the world is an essential next step.
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