To all lovers of nature, fauna and flora, we will discover some SMART animals, surprising facts and astonishing videos.
Man is indeed the most intelligent being on earth. He can solve extremely complex problems and make great achievements on earth with collective and well-planned work.
However, it is wrong to believe that other species are devoid of all intelligence. Several animals have impressive cognitive capabilities which can sometimes even exceed those of humans in certain specificities such as memory.
There is no method that is 100% accurate for comparing the intelligence of animals. However, there are some interesting tests to assess certain aspects like self-recognition tests in front of mirrors, analysis of teamwork, emotional capacity, problem-solving and many more.
We have compiled a list of the most evolved animals ordered by increasing intelligence. Some unexpected facts will surprise you. In the end, we will respect animals more and stop believing that we are the smartest creatures on earth.
7. Dogs
Border Collie Dog
I don’t know if you were expecting dogs to be on our list. It is a very common animal and can therefore be unexpected.
In fact, dogs behave more humanly than primates and respond to human gestures like pointing and eye movements without prior training.
They can understand emotions and symbolic language, and show great empathy.
They learn complex tricks quickly. They recognize their owners and they are as smart as a two-year-old baby according to expert estimations.
One of the smartest dogs in the world (or at least with the most impressive vocabulary) is a border collie named Rico. Rico knows the names of over 200 items and can pick up one object from a jumble of stuff after hearing its name just once. This type of task requires a lot of intelligence and advanced memorization skills.
In this video, we see how a dog of the “Border Collie” breed can memorize the names of several different objects and bring them up after hearing their names.
Now, let’s move on to the next special animal which is characterized by incredible intelligence!
6. Octopuses
Octopus
Although we are more familiar with the intelligence of vertebrates (i.e. with a backbone), some invertebrates are also incredibly smart, such as octopuses.
The octopus can be proud of its intelligence coupled with its many tentacles, which makes it capable of multitasking with great finesse. Note that more than half of its neurons are located in the tentacles which allow them to act independently.
The octopus has one of the largest brains among invertebrates. It can deploy several highly developed strategies to find food, and it has shown an advanced talent when it comes to problem-solving in scientific tests.
This creature is also renowned for its advanced techniques as a prison breaker. Among the actions that have been observed, we can mention:
- Throwing rocks at the aquarium walls and spraying water at the overhead lights to break them. This shows that they can make optimal use of available tools.
- Rotating the lid of a jar to escape.
In this video, we see how smart the octopus is by opening the lid of a jar to escape.
5. Crows
Crow
Crows have brains that are quite large for their total size. They have quite impressive cognitive abilities observed especially among New Caledonian crows.
Crows adapt quickly to their environment. Those in New Caledonia are the most adept at making and using tools. They have been seen to form probes and hooks from sticks and leaf stems to poke into the crowns of the palm trees or get hard-to-reach pieces of food.
The world has also witnessed another awesome test where a crow drops rocks into a water tube in order to raise the water level and thus reach the food reward that lies at the bottom.
This video illustrates the intelligent use that crows make of the various objects around them:
It should be noted that crows were also used as a messenger, much like pigeons. They can set up complicated group attack tactics such as flanking maneuvers.
Returning to the subject of memory, the capacity of crows is enormous. They can recognize human faces. They are known to change migration paths to avoid dangerous areas where crows have been killed in the past.
4. Dolphins
Dolphin
Body mass to brain ratio is one of the most used metrics by experts to judge an animal’s intelligence. Dolphins have one of the biggest ratios.
They easily identify themselves in front of mirrors and are characterized by advanced communication skills.
They learn quickly and can mimic human postures and other gestures such as human-like nodding motions that require advanced cognitive skills.
There are several species of dolphins, but the “Bottlenose Dolphin” race has the largest brains and the most powerful memorization skills.
In addition to being easily trainable, dolphins can recognize themselves in front of mirrors and even notice strange marks on their bodies.
This video illustrates self-recognition in front of mirrors:
Also, watch this awesome video where a dolphin asks a diver for help to remove a wire stuck in its fin.
3. Parrots
Parrot
Many people will say, yeah, they just copy what we say, and it’s not smart at all, it’s just mimicry, right?
In fact, parrots keep surprising us by solving quite complex problems, especially if there is food as a reward.
We also have to admit that very few creatures can repeat human phrases.
The African gray parrot is the most gifted of its kind. Estimated to be as smart as a five-year-old human being. It can learn not only human speech but also master a large vocabulary (up to hundreds of words).
African gray parrots understand spatial reasoning, recognize and identify shapes and colors, and can even learn the relationships between larger and smaller, different and similar, and above and below.
One of the examples to mention is Alex, an African gray parrot that can identify colors and shapes and has learned over 100 English words. It was trained by an expert in comparative psychology at Harvard University.
The video below shows that Alex, the African Parrot, has a real understanding of these concepts, rather than just memorizing the objects.
2. Elephants
Elephant
People who have interacted with elephants know well that they are intelligent. They have an impressive ability to learn behaviors, to sense a nice or potentially bad person, …
Elephants have larger brains than any other land animal, which gives them very powerful memorization capabilities. Indeed, they can remember long and complex routes leading to water for several years.
Elephants learn very easily and effectively about their environment. They are one of the few animals that have passed the self-recognition test in front of a mirror, which is already a good proof of intelligence.
These creatures are very social and show a lot of empathy, and can come to the aid of others. In fact, they have a complicated social structure and may even participate in funeral rituals for deceased family members as well as mourn their losses.
Speaking of mutual aid, a test that requires the intervention of two elephants to reach a piece of food was conducted, and indeed, they both cooperated which proves advanced team working abilities.
They also have strong trunks with which they can do a lot of things like taking a shower or breaking sticks.
In this impressive video, an artist elephant paints on a board, find out what it did:
The elephant recognizes itself in front of mirrors and can even notice strange spots on its skin:
1. Chimpanzees
Chimpanzee – Memorization Test
Chimpanzees are the animals that most resemble humans. We share almost 99% of our DNA with them. It is therefore not surprising that they are also very intelligent.
The majority of experts agree that they are the smartest animals on the planet. They can effectively manipulate and leverage their surroundings and environment to help themselves or their communities.
They can learn how to use objects as tools to do things faster and more efficiently, such as opening fruits and nuts with stones.
They are even known for their skills in making tools. In fact, studies have shown that some of these primates made spears out of sticks to hunt smaller prey and long branches to dig for termites.
Among their impressive characteristics and skills, we can mention their teamwork spirit to protect themselves or to develop sophisticated hunting strategies, altruism, empathy, … Some of them have been observed engaging in activities similar to human behavior, such as caregiving or mourning.
Also, chimpanzees can learn sign language to communicate with humans and according to tests, they have an instant and precise photographic memory.
In this video, a chimpanzee even outperformed a man in a memorization test that involves remembering the positions of 9 digits displayed on a screen in random order.
In another funny video, a chimpanzee in a zoo asks a visitor to give him a drink by pointing at the bottle and also the place where he can run the water.
This same video teaches us that if this chimpanzee were in the wild, it would not need to ask for water. This raises controversy and debate about the unethical nature of zoos as they deprive animals of their freedom.
A problem-solving test was conducted for a group of chimpanzees and they passed it successfully.
Boxes were placed in a room and a food reward was hung from the roof. To get it, the chimpanzees stacked the boxes as we can see in this video.
Last word
We get the point! There are a lot of misconceptions about animals that should be given due respect.
Animals feel pain, have feelings and can be sociable and harmless. They think too and have learned to survive even in the most difficult conditions. They constitute an integral component of our environment and participate in a very important way in the biological balance and biodiversity.
