5 CLEVER CRITTERS

How smart (or dumb) is your favourite creature? The five most intelligent animals are ...

1

Pigs

They have incredible longterm memories and are quick problem-solvers, shown in one study in the journal Animal Behaviour, using mirrors to unearth extra food in just under five hours. They also exhibit human-like empathy toward their penmates.

2

Dolphins

Dolphins have “highly developed spoken language” skills, with a brain four to five times bigger than other animals their body size. They’re hugely social, communicating with personalized sounds known as “signature whistles.”

3

Crows

Craftsmen of their own tools, they can make innovative spears or hooks from any old rubbish. These birds are serious problem-solvers, too, with expert recognition skills and so, unnervingly, can hold grudges — as fictionalized in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. They even develop their own dialect.

4

Elephants

Elephants show humanlike traits such as empathy and mourning. African elephants can also distinguish between humans, say researchers at the University of Sussex, including gender, age and ethnicity, by listening to our voices. 5

Chimps

Since Jane Goodall studied the habits of wild Tanzanian chimpanzees, we’ve discovered they can learn language, use tools and mourn just like us humans.