What is the smartest animal?
Chimpanzees and other great apes are often ranked as the smartest animals after humans. Dolphins, elephants, crows and parrots also show remarkable intelligence.
Intelligence is hard to compare across species, because each animal is adapted to its own environment. Scientists look for abilities such as problem-solving, using tools, learning from others, memory and recognizing oneself in a mirror. Chimpanzees use sticks to fish for termites and stones to crack nuts, and they pass these skills to their young.
Bottlenose dolphins have large brains, recognize themselves in mirrors and use signature whistles like names. Elephants remember routes and individuals for decades. New Caledonian crows bend wires into hooks to reach food, and some parrots, like Alex the African grey, learned to name objects, colors and numbers.
Surprising thinkers
Octopuses can open jars, escape from tanks and use coconut shells as shelters, even though their brains are very different from ours. Pigs perform well on many learning tests, and some fish, such as the cleaner wrasse, have passed versions of the mirror test.
Did You Know?
A chimpanzee named Ayumu in Japan amazed researchers by remembering the positions of numbers flashed on a screen far faster than most humans could.