| ANTS
communicate with each other, navigate by landmark and beacon use, are
able to estimate quite precisely numbers of encounters with members of
other colonies on their feeding areas. |
| BATS recognize individual voices and utilize echolocation to navigate. |
| BEES communicate where food is through their dance and can learn to decipher the language of bees on other continents. |
| BIRDS’ extensive intelligence, developed from adaptive brainpower, enabled them to avoid extinction 65 million years ago. |
| BONOBOS can learn sign language to communicate with humans and invent new combinations of symbols to express thoughts. |
| CATS
have a good memory which aids them in their learning processes and
exhibit qualities of intelligence such as curiosity, creative problem
solving and communication. |
| CHICKENS
have a complex social organization where they can remember more than
100 other chickens; communicate through over 30 types of vocalizations;
demonstrate self-control; pass along cultural knowledge from one
generation to the next; understand cause and effect relationships; can
solve math problems; and are able to be effective therapy animals. |
| CHIMPANZEES
use a variety of tools; can communicate by sign language; and have
outperformed human college students in tasks requiring remembering
numbers. |
| COWS
are excellent at remembering things; have social relationships; are
emotionally complex; understand cause and effect relationships; and can
figure out solutions to problems. |
| CORVIDS, which
include birds such as crows and ravens, have demonstrated hallmarks of
higher intelligence in common with humans such as tool use;
communicating through different dialects among kin; sophisticated
social behavior; and tactical behavior. |
| CRABS have
the remarkable aptitude to memorize visual features; learn from their
mistakes; adapt to different stimuli on their environment based on past
experiences; look out for one another and do not fight their
neighbors; react to acoustic stimuli; communicate
through sound vibrations; and provide care and ensure a clean
environment for their young. |
| DOGS
have applied their superior senses to give warnings of life
endangering situations in humans such as heart attacks, low insulin
levels, and seizures; can learn to be guides for the visually impaired;
possess good memories; can serve as therapy animals; and are trained
as search and rescue members. |
| DOLPHINS
have passed self-recognition tests; possess special sensory skills,
such as echolocation; understand symbol-based language; think about the
future; learn new behaviors that they pass on to fellow dolphins; and
have recognized when humans are in danger and provided protection from
predators or guided them towards the shore. |
| EARTHWORMS can make decisions on the kinds of leafy matter they use to block their tunnels. |
| ELEPHANTS can perform simple arithmetic and have passed self-recognition tests. |
| FISH can communicate with one another; use tools; and have shown to have good long-term memory. |
| FROGS,
such as the male gray treefrogs, when singing in a chorus, adjust
their croak to stand out and get the attention of a female. |
| GIRAFFES communicate with each other at an infrasonic level that humans cannot hear. |
| GOATS
have a natural curiosity and intelligence; are willing to explore new
surroundings; can learn new tasks; are capable of easily escaping from
enclosures; and will not consume soiled food or contaminated water. |
| GORILLAS use similar body language as humans to communicate with each other and can learn sign language to “speak” with humans. |
| HORSES
can count; perform cognitive tasks; have good spatial recognition;
excel at simple learning; and are able to solve advanced mental
challenges. |
| INSECTS communicate
not only between species but with subterranean and land animals and
use plants like a telephone line to exchange information. |
| JAY BIRDS use
memories of past experiences to plan ahead; can remember thousands of
food caches; and remember how long they have stored a particular food
and will retrieve it before it spoils. |
| KOALAS communicate through calls to attract mates or to warn of danger. |
| LLAMAS are sensitive and intelligent animals that are effective therapy assistants to humans. |
| LOBSTERS,
like dolphins and many other animals, use complicated signals to
explore their surroundings and establish social relationships; can
detect slight changes of only a degree or two in water temperature; and
communicate through pheromones. |
| MICE are socially complex animals with the capability to learn and solve problems. |
| MONKEYS have
a culture and social system of passing information from one generation
to the next that teaches the young to find food, recognize relatives,
and use tools; self-medicate using beneficial plants; possess
sophisticated forms of communication that involve visual cues, auditory
calls and olfactory signals; and have learned tasks to assist human
quadriplegics with daily living. |
| MYNAHS are known as the best mimics of human speech and other sounds, with some being able to learn a new word every couple of days. |
| NIGHTINGALES have complex songs to communicate and adjust their calls according to the ambient noise level. |
| OCTOPUSES construct their own shelters from coconut shells, demonstrating tool use in an invertebrate animal. |
| PARROTS can
associate human words with their meanings; learn to mimic a large
vocabulary of human language; dance to music and change their rhythm
based on the musical beat; excel at cognitive tasks; and can apply
abstract concepts such as shape, color, number, etc. |
| PIGS are
highly intelligent with a good memory; have a complex social
structure; are capable of abstract representation; possess a higher
cognitive ability than a 3-year-old child; and learn new things quickly,
including learning their names, playing video games, and adjusting the
air conditioner on and off to be comfortable. |
| PIGEONS
can learn complex actions and response sequences; recognize other
individual pigeons; have passed the self-awareness test; remember routes
home from long distances; aid in life jacket detection for sea
rescues; saved countless human lives in times of conflict; are able to
detect earthquakes and electrical storms through sound; can remember
hundreds of images for several years; and can recognize paintings by
different artists on par with college students. |
| QUEEN BEES effectively communicate with the bee colony through vibratory signals called piping. |
| RABBITS
have a complex social structure; can learn to use a litter box and
come when called; and have recognized danger and alerted their human
companions. |
| RATS have the ability to represent a spatial pattern in mazes and can be trained to safely detect landmines. |
| SEALS, like humans, use the position of stars at night to navigate their way in open water. |
| SHEEP
can recognize the faces of fellow sheep and humans; perceive high
frequency sounds that cannot be heard by humans; have excellent spatial
memory; and have learned to outsmart barriers to get to a better food
source. |
| SHRIMP communicate via visual and chemical signals. |
| SQUIRRELS, and
other scatter-hoarder animals, can remember the locations of thousands
of food caches, often following major physical changes in their
environment. |
| TOADS can detect very low frequency radio sounding to predict earthquakes. |
| TURKEYS have distinct personalities; are
keenly aware of their surroundings to blend in and escape danger; are
highly social animals; and can recognize familiar human faces. |
| TURTLES
can spot a lake or pond a mile in the distance; are adept at learning
mazes; enjoy forms of entertainment and fun; communicate subsonically;
have existed in habitats where little else can survive for over 230
million years; can recognize human companions; and females accurately
return to the same beach where they were born to lay eggs during
breeding season. |
| UMBRELLA COCKATOOS
are highly intelligent and affectionate; can imitate human speech;
have a social nature; and can learn to perform simple tasks. |
| VULTURES have
shown high intelligence, accepting help from humans even in a
stressful situation and use hisses to communicate their pleasure or
displeasure. |
| WHALES
able to identify different fellow cetacean calls through the ocean
waters and politely wait for their turn to speak; can communicate using
whale songs, clicks and echolocation; are known to teach, learn,
collaborate, plan and mourn; have aided humans and ships in distress to
safety. |
| XENOPS communicate with each other through their complex bird calls and songs. |
| YAKS apply teamwork to protect
themselves from temperatures as low as minus 50° Celsius by huddling
up together at night, with the calves in the center. |
| ZEBRA FINCHES dream
when they are asleep with brain activity that mirrors that which occur
during bird song; have special brain cells that are necessary for
original songs; in their developmental stages to find their voice as
chicks are similar to that of human babies; adjust their singing
depending on their audience; and recognize one another by their
particular songs. |