Animals are not stupid, and most pet owners will agree with this statement. Opposable thumbs may help (as the primates show) but it’s their intelligence that makes these animals stand out.
While probably non of the animals will surprise you, all of these animals’ intelligence compares somehow to human intelligence.
# 10 — Raccoon
Did you know that raccoons can learn solutions to complex problems and even recall them years afterwards? Also, they are great thieves.
# 9 — Border Collie
Border Collies are highly adaptable to humans. Never mind their need to be constantly occupied, this dog can react to different tone of voice when giving them commands. They also observe our hands, so they are capable of learning how to open closed doors.
# 8 — African Grey Parrot
It’s well known that parrots can mimic voices and that they can be trained to say short sentences. They even have a vocabulary over 100 words! But truly surprising is the realization that they can deduct when faced with a problem during experiments.
# 7 — Pig
A pig’s memory is just as good as a raccoon’s, quite trainable and have a very good sense of direction. In a Pennsylvania State University study pigs learned to play video games via joysticks, using their snout to push the joysticks.
# 6 — Rat
Scientists believe that rats never forget a navigational route in their life, and can communicate in a variety of ways. Also, rats show a sense of social compassion – in experiments they freed their fellow rodent so both of them could eat.
# 5 — Orang-Utan
This primate has the ability to learn to communicate with humans via sounds, symbols, and even sign language. They can also learn to utilize tools.
# 4 — Crow
What does a crow do when it wants to crack a nut? It drops it into traffic, waits until the traffic stops at the red light and goes to collect its successfully cracked nut.
Apart from that, scientists equal their reasoning abilities with those of seven year old children. Like primates, they can use tools and even recognize specific humans.
# 3 — Elephant
The saying of having an elephant’s memory does have true roots. Their memory is truly terrific. Besides that, these gray giants also show empathic responses to each other. They can also understand certain spoken phrases.
# 2 — Bottlenose Dolphin
It’s well known that dolphins are highly intelligent. They often play around, sometimes they even make air rings underwater to play with. These mammals also have self-awareness, as proven by their ability to recognize their own reflection in a mirror.
# 1 — Chimpanzee
Chimpanzees are considered to be the smartest animals. There are instances of these apes to outwitting humans, and they have an even better short-term memory than we do. They “read” situations, can solve problems accordingly and even use tools to do so.
