History, literature, Hollywood (and life in general) have all hinted at the intelligence of almost all the critters you will see in our list of 10, based on the latest rankings by A-Z Animals.
For all our sakes – we hope rats aren’t plotting new ways to take over the world, because it seems they may have the smarts to do it! Despite having such small brains to work with, their minds work in a highly similar way to our minds.
Pigeons can identify all the letters of the English alphabet (some of us must sing the nursery rhyme to get to Z)! They can recognise their reflection and distinguish between two people in a picture. Pretty impressive.
The antagonist in all your nightmares (thanks to all the horror movies), crows, can learn speech and have an impressive memory. They can memorise garbage routes and schedules to steal food from the trucks, and more!
Pigs bring home the bacon when it comes to smarts! They grasp the concept of reflection at only six weeks old (something that takes a human baby a couple of months to comprehend).
If we had left it to the octopus to rank itself in this list, it would probably have predicted it would come in at number six (they way Paul could predict scores during the 2010 FIFA World Cup). They use high-order planning with several steps to escape from captivity and solve mazes. They can disguise themselves as rocks and match the speed of the water to create the illusion that they’re standing still.
The African Grey parrot sits high on the avian perch of our list. Estimated to be as bright as a five-year-old human being, these parrots not only learn human speech, but they can master an impressively large vocabulary of over a hundred words.
Like Disney’s Dumbo, Elephants may have been used in the circus, but their minds are no tricksters. They observe funeral rituals and medicate themselves. They even know which medicines (plants) induce labour!
Caesar from Planet of the Apes is proof that we are a ‘chimp’ off the old block. Chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA with humans. They teach their young sign language and use it to communicate (all this without any human intervention).
The bottlenose dolphins are highly trainable, recognise their reflections, notice unfamiliar marks on their body in a reflection, and have impressive memories. They have a language specific to their species that they switch to a “common language” to communicate with other species.
Orangutans can use tools, learn sign language, and have complex social structures that involve rituals. They climb to the top of our tree because they can be trained to use a hammer and nails and have even learned to use a hose to siphon liquids.
