Man is the most intelligent of the animals, and the most silly. ~Diogenes
Can’t argue with that, but I’m also not inclined to throw my species under the bus–or to tout its intelligence unnecessarily. We all know what we’re capable of, whatever level that is. Today I’m thinking about wilder creatures that have amazing capabilities.
Without standard testing, how do scientists measure?
Determining whether one dog is smarter than another is not that difficult, I’m told, but across species? That can be problematic. It isn’t as though there’s a Stanford-Binet that can gauge whether a cheetah is smarter than a crow. Probably the crow, but you take my point. How Stuff Works helps to explain that.
It doesn’t appear that there’s an objective standard, but there are clues. Scientists observe the ability of subjects to respond to changes in their environment. This might mean arriving at solutions and exhibiting behaviors that execute the “fix”. An example is when crows, or other smart birds, drop a nut on the pavement , thus turning the next passing car into a nutcracker. Genius.
The testing, as described by the National Library of Medicine, is complex, repetitive, and specifically designed to assess adaptation speed, effectiveness of the solution, and ability to execute same. Take a look at the source abstract if you want to delve further. Taking it step by step here would make this post far too long and would be a stressor I don’t need.
So which are the smartest?
Back to How Stuff Works for a list, which I’m cherry picking. Mainly, I’m omitting the primates because there’s no surprise there. Also omitting dogs and cats because those of us who have four-footed family members have subjective notions that no objective results would ever alter. Here’s a rundown of the top eight, filtered by my preference in addressing. Access the link if you’re interested in seeing all 30 animals listed plus some detail not included below.
A few facts you may not know about common critters
- Dolphins – besides “social complexities and self-awareness”, they have built in sonar and can understand and follow instructions.
- Elephants – work and celebrate as a team, grieve the deaths of relatives, and are able to understand and execute human commands.
- Crows – bend wire to catch food, play tricks on each other, communicate in “population-specific dialect.”
- Rats – save lives by detecting tuberculosis in humans and sniff out landmines–the trained ones, of course. But average, run-of-the-mill rats have colonized every continent except Antarctica. They may make it there yet.
- Pigeons – can recognize themselves in mirrors and learn to perform sequential tasks. But besides carrying messages, did you know they were the first drones? They’ve been used to carry tiny cameras into enemy territory to develop information the military wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
- Octopus – one of the most intelligent creatures in the sea has the agility and strength to unscrew a lid off a jar. They can solve problems, find their way through mazes, and recognize individual humans even if they have identical uniforms on. They treat the person that feeds them differently than someone who nudges them with a stick. I would, too.
- Squirrels – the Eastern gray variety does deceptive caching. They dig holes to pretend to hide their food, then take it elsewhere. They do this to keep their food stores safe from potential thieves. Tree squirrels do spacial chunking, sorting their nuts by size, shape, or nutritional value. They have organized pantries, it seems.
- Pigs – understand the concept of using mirrors work to find hidden food, are as trainable as dogs, and learn quickly. Sadly, they are challenged to forget bad experiences and that gets in their way, just like humans.
In full disclosure, the article mentions that pigs are as trainable as cats and dogs–not just dogs–but it’s usually cats that train their owners, not the other way around. I’m not sure that including cats lends credibility to the article, but I’ll move along.
We're just not that smart
We don’t have sonar built into our DNA, and I’d starve before I could figure out how to create a tool to catch fried chicken. Never mind the idea of tossing a walnut onto the pavement and waiting for a motorized vehicle to crack it open so I can eat. All that, plus the fact that some animals’ brains are much larger than ours. For example, elephants’ brains have, on average, three times the number of neurons as human brains.
How did we end up at the top of the food chain? And will we be able to stay here, or will the crows take over at some point? Might be a good idea to consider the possibility that we won’t always be top dog and behave accordingly.
Having worked, usually upper management, for 30 years—-I have hired hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Intelligence was a factor of selection but only in the top 10. Intelligence does not factor in creativity nor judgement nor the ability to work with others nor work ethic, nor dependability, etc. The list is long.
No kidding. I know many people with high intelligence who haven’t figured out how to apply it effectively.