ANIMALS DO THE SMARTEST – AND STUPIDEST – THINGS
5 most intelligent animals 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 humanlike empathy towards their penmates.
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 personalised sounds known as “signature whistles”.
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 fictionalised in Hitchcock’s
Birds. They even develop their own dialect.
Elephants
Elephants show human-like 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, just by listening to our voices.
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.
…and the stupidest Dogs
Looking at more than 300 studies on the intelligence of canines, researchers found several cases of “overinterpretation”, with owners often thinking their dog was smarter than it really was.
Kakapos
This New Zealand native is a flightless parrot (below left). Having evolved in an area with no predators and ample food, they have had no reason to develop their brains. When sensing danger, they either hold completely still or jump out of trees, only to land in a heap on the ground.
Pandas
They may tug on our heartstrings, but this “vulnerable” creature is among the least-motivated animals when it comes to mating, raising young and even being carnivores.
Turkeys
Their widely spaced eyes and clumsy walking style has led to the turkey’s dim-witted reputation.
Koalas
Koalas have one of the smallest brain-to-body ratios of any animal. If you presented a koala with a eucalyptus already plucked from a tree, it wouldn’t be able to recognise that it is still edible.
Additional reporting: Sameeha Shaikh and Anna Clarke