Which animals have the highest intelligence? The smartest animals in the world

Very often in human society you can hear the following saying: “You are greeted by your clothes, but you are seen off by your mind.” Lives on our planet huge number species of animals. I wonder if this statement can be applied to them? Can some representatives of the fauna show off their intelligence and intelligence? It turns out that quite well. Let's try to find out which are the smartest animals in the world.

Rating of the smartest animals in the animal world

For a long time, scientists have been conducting their research to study the mental abilities of our smaller brothers. Most zoologists are sure that among animals there are also those who are a step above the rest in terms of intelligence. Here is a list of 10 representatives who almost unanimously deserved the title of wise men and women:

The chimpanzee rightfully takes first place.
On the second place are dolphins, no one doubts this.
The giants of the animal world - elephants - are in fourth place.
Oddly enough, the crow also made it onto the list of smartest animals on the planet.
Domestic pigs are in sixth place.
The red jumping squirrel ranks seventh.
People have long used pigeons as postmen; they occupy 8th place.
Octopus is in 9th place.
The rat closes the top ten.

Many people probably never thought that the animals on this list are capable of much. As evidence, you need to get acquainted with their merits.

Leader among the smart

Chimpanzees belong to the family of apes; they are close relatives of ours, which is probably why they are not so far behind us in their mental abilities.

Here are just a few abilities that can convince anyone that chimpanzees take first place for a reason:

Not only can they use various tools, but they also make some of them themselves, for example, stone hammers, termite sticks, spears.
With the help of their tools, chimpanzees can hunt, in this way they remind primitive man at the dawn of its development.
Chimpanzees are one of the few animals on earth that can recognize themselves in the mirror.
The chimpanzee decides to use a stick to knock down the banana.
In some experiments, chimpanzees are even superior to children in their intelligence.

But no matter how smart these animals are, they are naturally far from being human.

Dolphins are smart

These marine animals appeared on our planet much earlier than humans. Almost everyone will agree that dolphins are distinguished by an enviable intelligence; they, like people, pass on their outstanding abilities and capabilities to the younger generation.

Females long time They are engaged in raising their offspring, thereby teaching them everything that they themselves know. Here are just some of their abilities:

Dolphins are able to engage in collective work, for example, getting food or solving other complex problems.
They are able to perfectly imitate the actions of their fellow animals and even other animals.
Dolphins not only see themselves in the mirror, but also try to show off in front of it; you will agree that this is a purely human trait.
Trainers note the dolphins' creative approach to performing various tricks.
The ability to distinguish friend from foe by whistling is well developed among dolphins.
By using sound signal They communicate well with each other even at a distance.
Dolphins are able to imitate the chirping of birds, the creaking of a door, even some words of human speech.

Agree, quite an impressive list of possibilities.

Smart "forest man"

Another representative from the world of primates claims to be a smart animal - this is the orangutan. These animals develop strong public relations. From generation to generation they pass on their accumulated experience to their children. Orangutans cleverly use huge palm leaves instead of rain umbrellas. By about 10 years of age, they can taste more than 100 edible plants.

They, just like chimpanzees, are able to use various tools to achieve their goals. For example, they use a pointed stick to catch fish in the river.

All this once again confirms the presence of intelligence in these animals.

Clumsy Giants

In fourth place in terms of intelligence are elephants. These giants of the animal world are only outwardly clumsy and childish, but in fact they can compete with many in wit and display of intelligence.

Despite the small volume of the brain relative to the entire body mass, elephants are capable of demonstrating extraordinary abilities.

They demonstrate their emotions perfectly: they rejoice when they feel good and cry in moments of grief.
Elephants know how to show sensitive care for their fellow tribesmen. They may not leave the dead body for several days, and in some cases they even organize a kind of funeral, throwing leaves over the corpses.
An elephant remembers for the rest of its life the person who offended it. There are cases in history when, even after decades, he killed his offender upon meeting.
These huge animals have excellent artistic abilities, they have good hearing and musical memory.

It’s probably not for nothing that in India these animals are practically members of the family, helping with housework and even raising children.

Winged clever girls

In the world of birds, crows are considered the smartest. They deservedly take fifth place. To their merits can be attributed:

Ability to distinguish the colors of traffic lights and cross the road correctly.
Some specimens even think of putting nuts under the wheels of cars so that they can easily eat them later.
Crows are able to adopt skills and abilities from each other.
During one experiment, a crow figured out how to bend a wire into a hook to get a treat out of a glass container. But the use of various tools precisely demonstrates the presence of intelligence.
The crows even learned to throw coins into the machine so that it would give them nuts in return. Isn't this a manifestation of the mind?

The smart ones got dirty

Researchers have noticed that pigs are so intelligent that they can grunt to the beat of a melody. These animals are quite susceptible to stress, babies react painfully to being separated from their mother, and can refuse to eat for a long time.

Some biologists believe that a pig's intelligence is at the level of a 3-year-old child. And in terms of training, they are in no way inferior to dogs and cats.

Experiments were conducted in which this pet learned to control a joystick to move the cursor on a computer in order to get the next portion of food.

Red jumper

Despite the fact that the squirrel's brain is only the size of a bean, many scientists note its extraordinary abilities. What does it cost to stock up on nuts for the whole winter, which need to be hidden in different places, because all this stock will not fit in one hollow.

Even after a few months, they remember their hiding places perfectly; not every person will remember after a week where they hid their stash. Isn't this proof of intelligence?

Smart pigeons

Pigeons are frequent residents of large cities, calmly strolling around the squares and waiting for something to be given to them from the treat.

In fact, these birds are also considered quite intelligent. During the experiments it was established:

After many years, pigeons are able to retain various images in their memory.
They recognize themselves in the mirror no worse than chimpanzees.
If you try, pigeons can be taught to distinguish objects and remember movements.

Is it a secret to anyone that pigeons were used as postmen who delivered letters many kilometers away? Is it possible to find the way back if there is not enough intelligence and intelligence?

Eight legs are not a sign of intelligence

It turns out that even among invertebrate animals there are quite smart ones. This is the well-known octopus. With its tentacles it sea creature capable:

Move masterfully.
Carry heavy loads.
Build nests.
Open clam shells.
Attach eggs to underwater rocks.
It's great to protect your home.

During the experiments, it was proven that these animals are no worse than dogs amenable to training; they can distinguish geometric shapes, and this indicates the presence of good memory and intelligence.

Closing the top ten

Rats, oddly enough, also made it into the top ten smartest animals. They live almost everywhere except Antarctica.

Most scientists are of the opinion that these animals have a kind of collective intelligence that allows them to avoid death in any situation. Like, for example, leaving a sinking ship even before the crash.

In a rat family, there is a strict distribution of responsibilities; there is not only the leader of the pack, but also scouts who, sacrificing their lives, taste the poisoned bait. After that, everyone else just bypasses her. Isn't this intelligence and a manifestation of intelligence?

If a person can constantly step on the same rake, then a rat never allows himself to do this, which is probably why they are practically indestructible.

One can argue for a long time which animal is the smartest, but there is no doubt that not only humans can boast of their mental abilities. He, of course, as a creature from the animal world, takes the palm, but underestimate intellectual abilities our smaller brothers are not worth it. In some situations, representatives of the animal world may turn out to be much more resourceful, quick-witted and smarter than a person. This is what allows them to survive near people and thrive at the same time.

People who inhabit almost the entire planet consider themselves the most intelligent on it, capable of developing and achieving success. But few people think about the fact that some animals also have high mental abilities. Scientists have long been interested in the question of what kind. After all, some of them simply amaze with their intellectual capabilities, which consist in the ability to count and speak, in the ability to obtain food for themselves using improvised means. Yes, and you can train an animal in a lot of ways, the main thing is to put in the effort and patience.

Top smartest animals

In 10th place are rats. These creatures are characterized by a collective mind that controls the actions of each individual. It helps to avoid death from, for example, poisoned baits. Rats are excellent at moving on any surface. They can survive at temperatures of -17 ° C and still reproduce.

Octopuses take 9th place. These creatures are able to play, distinguish shapes and patterns, solve riddles, and navigate labyrinths. They have short-term and long-term memory, and are easily hypnotized. In nature, they often build stone shelter houses.

8th place in the list of the smartest animals that exist on the planet belongs to pigeons. Birds easily remember and recognize thousands of images; they retain this memory for many years. These birds can recognize their own image in the mirror. Pigeons are excellent at finding their way home, and their speed of flight makes it possible to use them to transmit mail.

7th place is occupied by proteins. The brain size of this nimble animal is about the size of a large pea; it allows them to perfectly navigate in space, have a brilliant intellect and a rare memory. They are able to think and analyze. So, squirrels do not hibernate until they find about 3,000 nuts. After 2 months they can remember the location of the nut.

Pigs, known for their ability to adapt to different conditions, occupy an honorable 6th position. They are able to respond to music by grunting in rhythm with the sound. However, pigs are very susceptible stressful situations: for example, if a baby pig was separated from its mother. The intelligence of a pig is approximately equivalent to that of a three-year-old child, and in terms of learning ability, these animals are at the level of cats and dogs. These creatures have a wonderful sense of smell, which people use to find truffles or various drugs. Physiological features pigs allow them to be used as donor material for humans.

5th place is occupied by crows. These are incredibly savvy creatures. They perfectly understand the meaning of red and green traffic lights, have amazing memory and learn from each other. The birds collect nuts, place them on the road under the wheels of cars in order to open the shells, and use twigs to get insects from the bark of trees.

What are the smartest animals? Undoubtedly - elephants! They occupy 4th place in the ranking. These are not just awkward giants with huge ears and good memory. Their brain weight is more than 5 kg. Elephants show their emotions by movements of their head, ears and trunk, expressing a particular mood. Elephants are very sensitive and caring towards their group and other animals. For example, they greatly experience the loss of a member of the herd, spending many days near the body and covering the deceased with vegetation. In addition, these giants have a good memory, distinguishing melodies consisting of three notes.

Who is in 3rd place? When considering the question of what are the smartest animals on Earth, one cannot ignore orangutans. These (sometimes called " forest people") have high culture and social connections. Females care for their offspring for many years, teaching them survival skills. By the age of 10, these animals can taste and identify more than 200 species of edible plants. Orangutans use tools to wildlife and are able to recognize themselves in

Dolphins rightfully take 2nd place. Having appeared on Earth tens of millions of years earlier than humans, dolphins are much more intelligent than almost all creatures. They easily remember and repeat the actions of their fellow birds, they can carry out commands, come up with tricks with objects, distinguish the voices of members of the flock, imitate the chirping of birds, gnashing, and even repeat some words or human laughter.

The championship in the ranking of which are the smartest animals that live around us belongs to chimpanzees. These apes leaders in the manufacture and use of tools. When it comes to ingenuity, they are much smarter than children. These monkeys are able to build complex figures, are able to control their environment and communicate with animals of their own species using certain “linguistic structures”.

When we learned how intelligent some animals are, we became uneasy. Perhaps we are not watching them, but they are watching us.

20. Turtles

It was not for nothing that Tortilla the turtle in Alexei Tolstoy’s fairy tale was the personification of wisdom. Many modern studies confirm that some species of turtles have remarkable intelligence.

Turtles are trainable, they easily find a way out of the maze, can adopt the skills of other turtles, are well domesticated, quickly cease to be afraid of humans and feed from their hands.

19. Cephalopods

Cephalopods are the most intelligent of mollusks. Many of them have the ability to mimic, octopuses successfully pass the “look and remember” test and have excellent navigational abilities.
Squids live in schools, and scientists have already suggested that they have their own codified language.

18. Bees

Bees are the supermen of insects. They can navigate by the Sun, sense the Earth's electromagnetic field, and remember visual objects. In addition, bees are social creatures. They know how to communicate with each other using the so-called waggle dance.

17. Crocodiles

Scientists now recognize that crocodiles are overly demonized. An American zoologist from the University of Tennessee, Vladimir Dinets, observed crocodiles for 10 years and came to the conclusion that, firstly, they are trainable, and secondly, playful.
There is a known story when a crocodile lived until his death with a man who cured him after being wounded. He calmly swam with his friend in the pool, played with him, tried to scare him, allegedly attacking him, and even allowed himself to be stroked, hugged and kissed on the face.

16. Sheep

Sheep in the generally accepted view are narrow-minded animals. However modern research they say that sheep good memory On the face of it, they are social animals and capable of building relationships. Their main problem is fearfulness. They don’t want to show their weakness so much that they don’t complain about pain until it becomes impossible. Quite humanly.

15. Pigeons

We all know about pigeon mail. This type of communication, which has existed much longer than most modern ones, is based on the ability of pigeons to “homing” - the instinct to return home. In Russian history, Princess Olga took advantage of this effectively.
The pigeon's brain is capable of processing and storing huge amounts of information. Pigeons collect it using all their senses. The eyes of a dove are designed in such a way that they only remember necessary information, cutting off everything unnecessary. Pigeons have very sharp eyesight combined with excellent memory. This allows them to formulate a route based on visual impressions.

14. Horses

Horses are smart and cunning, they have a good memory. Akhal-Teke horses are monogamous. They serve one owner all their lives.

All horses are trainable. So, Arabian horse will never step on your foot, and the police breeds “Budenovtsy” and “Donchak” are trained to disperse crowds, so you shouldn’t expect delicacy from them.

13. Parrots

Everyone knows that parrots are capable of onomatopoeia, but parrots can do more than just talk funny.

African gray parrot according to its intelligence and emotional development can be compared with 3-4 summer child. Parrots have a good memory, they are capable of empathy and expression of emotions, they learn and have rare intelligence. So, parrots living in the wild place nuts under the wheels of cars so that they crack them.

What's interesting is that parrots continue to develop, and their analytical thinking abilities increase.

12. Navy SEALs

Fur seals are not only cute, but also very smart. They are trainable and easy to train. Cats have a great built-in navigation system. Despite the fact that they are pack animals, fur seals they go hunting alone and generally show individualism.

11. Raccoons

Raccoons are trending today. These smart, sociable animals have extraordinary intelligence. To get food, they are able to solve logical “multi-steps” and actively use tools in order, for example, to open a garbage can. They are able to remember the solution to a given problem for three years.

10. Raven

Crows can remember and distinguish not only the volume and weight of an object, but also the material from which it is made. Thus, crows will never put a piece of wood into a vessel to increase the water level, but they will put a stone.
Ravens are not called “feathered primates” for nothing - they know how to use a mirror and a digging stick

9. Jays

Jays are the Einsteins of the bird world. Like all corvids, they have a phenomenal ability to remember and imitate sounds. When jays hide food, they do it very cleverly, and then, if their hiding place is found, they can spy on the thief. This led scientists to the conclusion that jays are capable of putting themselves in someone else's shoes, looking at the situation through someone else's eyes - the eyes of a potential thief. This is a rare property in the animal world.

8. Proteins

If you go into the forest now to feed the squirrels, you will see that the squirrels themselves will hardly eat - they will prepare food for the winter, hiding it in hiding places. Squirrels have a very good memory. They remember all their thousands of bookmarks for two whole months.

Squirrels are excellent thieves, and they can not only run/grab/escape, but also wait and predict the behavior of a potential raid victim.
Squirrels are cunning. If they see a threat, they can pretend to bury the treasure in one place and then hide it.

7. Pigs

Academician Pavlov also noted that “the most nervous animal around us is the pig.” Pigs are smart and cunning animals. Hunters say: “If you’re going to hunt a bear, prepare a bed; if you’re going to hunt a wild boar, prepare a coffin.” You can never catch a boar with the same bait; these wild pigs have good analytical skills. Domestic pigs are purists when it comes to daily routine. They remember feeding times especially quickly.

6. Rats

Rats are one of the smartest animals. Rats, like us, dream, they communicate with each other in the ultrasonic range so as not to be heard by predators. In this case, rats are able to suddenly change the frequency of signals.

Rats have a rich vocabulary of screams with special meanings. The rat is the only mammal other than humans that can laugh. Recently, scientists discovered a reaction in rats to funny situations.

Rats, as you know, are not loners. They know how to build a hierarchy in their society. Conducted by Didier Desor, a scientist from the laboratory of behavioral biology at the University of Nancy, experiments showed that the greatest degradation of the brain as a result of stress was in exploiters - they were afraid of losing power.

5. Cats

Domestic cats are able to express their feelings using facial expressions, gaze, movements, accurately recognize human intonations, and even imitate them. Cats have better memory than dogs. If a cat finds itself outdoors, it joins the pack. They have a strict hierarchy and distribution of responsibilities. Some researchers consider such flocks to be a sign of secondary feralization, that is, a return to a wild state.

4. Dogs

The intelligence of dogs is a scientifically proven fact. These animals are trained and have a good memory. Recent research confirms that a dog is a very intelligent friend of man.
Scientists at Harvard University, USA, working under the guidance of Professor Mark Hauser, have proven that dogs are able to “parody” human facial expressions and gestures. They are echoed by scientists at the University of Vienna Psychology, who published research results in the journal Current Biology, confirming the ability of these animals to “selective imitation.”

3. Elephants

Sharikov in Bulgakov’s novel said: “Well, I don’t understand, or what? The cat is another matter. Elephants are useful animals.” In some ways he was right: in practical terms, an elephant is indeed more useful than a cat. They are faithful assistants man for many centuries.

Aristotle echoes Polygraph Paligrafovich: “The elephant is an animal that surpasses all others in wit and intelligence.” Elephants really have a very good memory and flexible mind. They even turned out to be capable of learning human language. An elephant named Kaushik, living in Asia, has learned to imitate human speech, or rather, five words: annyong (hello), anja (sit), aniya (no), nuo (lie down) and choah (good).

2. Whales

When we say “whales,” we mean whales, dolphins, and killer whales. These are some of the most intelligent representatives of the fauna. Much has been written about their abilities and superpowers.
In captivity, whales can even learn to imitate human speech. They imitate it by sharply increasing the pressure in their nasal cavities and causing the sound lips to vibrate.
The abilities of cetaceans are already recognized at the state level: in India this year, dolphins were recognized as individuals and dolphinariums were banned.

1. Primates

Humans and apes are approximately 98% genetically similar. We put monkeys in first place in our rating. Their learning ability is amazing, their memory and intellectual abilities have amazed scientists for many years.

Monkeys have learned to live next to humans, steal from them, and deceive them. In India, Hanuman's langurs, temple monkeys, are recognized as one of the sacred animals. They are famous for their ability to steal anything they like. Nothing can be done about this - langurs are untouchable.

Some of the abilities of our smaller brothers make us not just wonder, but think hard.

Perhaps we only think that we are watching animals, but in reality they are looking down on us, and thinking to themselves, how stupid and narrow-minded these people are!

10. Proteins

Despite its small size and small brain volume, the squirrel's intelligence is approximately that of a two- or three-year-old child. These familiar little animals are not as simple as they seem, but this is due to their phenomenal memory! For the winter, a squirrel can make, just think, thousands of caches of supplies and remember them in spades, which is confirmed by experiments. In the animal’s head there is a real GPS map or GLONASS navigator, which even a person cannot boast of. After all, often we cannot find even keys or a mobile phone that were placed somewhere, but the squirrel remembers everything! The squirrel is extremely inventive! If she sees that a person has noticed where she hid the food, rest assured that when you leave, the animal will definitely hide everything! Scientists have proven that in the wild, squirrels actively communicate with each other. They exchange information about food sources, including those that can be stolen from humans. The high intelligence of squirrels is also evidenced by their good learning ability. A tamed animal quickly remembers its nickname and readily responds to it.

9. Rats

This biological species has been living next to humans for many centuries and, largely thanks to this, has become wiser. Many people dislike these animals, and for good reason, since rats carry infections and create unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, you can’t deny them high intelligence! These rodents are excellent masters of adaptation; they thrive in both hot India and cold Yakutia. In terms of spatial thinking, rats are at least as good as humans. In some incomprehensible way, they manage to accurately find a way out of the most complex labyrinths. In general, there are legends about the cunning of rats; it’s not without reason that they say “cunning as a rat”! Rodents form complexly organized societies with leaders, soldiers, scouts and other specialized individuals. Also, rats communicate with each other using ultrasound and dozens of types of calls, each of which has its own meaning. Scientists have proven that the rat is the only creature on Earth (except humans) that can laugh. Incredibly, these animals actually showed a specific reaction to funny situations!

8. Bees

Although, strictly speaking, bees are not animals, but insects, we still decided to include them in our rating, placing them in eighth place. Not only bees, but also ants and termites have so-called swarm intelligence or collective intelligence. Bees build an orderly hive, reminiscent of a human city, in which each of its inhabitants has its own useful function. For example, there are worker honey bees, as well as drones, whose duties include fertilizing the queen. The latter is busy only with laying eggs, which are looked after by special bees-educators. Surprisingly, all this very complex system works smoothly and reproduces itself, which is impossible without intelligence, albeit a collective one. Recent studies have shown that bees exchange information with each other by performing dances while in flight. Scientists are already able to distinguish at least 60 individual dance words, but most likely there are many more. So developed alarm system Not all mammals, which are generally considered the crown of evolution, have this.

7. Pigs

Pigs are confidently one of the three most intelligent pets. In the wild, they are no less intelligent, and also very dangerous. It’s not for nothing that there is a saying among hunters: “If you’re going to hunt a bear, prepare a bed, if you’re going to hunt a wild boar, prepare a coffin.” The Pig has excellent analytical skills, and its sense of time is simply phenomenal. Animals on automated farms sense the approaching feeding time with an accuracy of one minute! But if you ask a person who does not have a watch what time it is, at best they will answer you with an accuracy of 10 minutes! Scientists have discovered the exceptional ingenuity of pigs when it comes to finding food. To do this, these animals use tricks that can easily deceive even humans. High intelligence of pigs and quick learner allows them to perform in the circus and even play simple games computer games using a patch and light signs. Animals have excellent long-term memory and an excellent sense of smell, which is particularly used to search for truffle mushrooms.

6. Crows

These birds are considered geniuses among birds, and in some manifestations of intelligence they are in no way inferior to higher primates. Crows have a well-developed logical thinking. American scientists managed to teach these birds to collect coins and throw them into a vending machine to get nuts for it. There was no need to teach them to crack nuts at all - any adult raven knows perfectly well that to do this it is enough to fly higher and release the nut from its paws above a hard surface. The memory of crows breaks all records. Students at the University of Washington caught several birds, measured them, weighed them, and released them. However, the birds did not forgive such treatment and for three months after that they chased students around the campus and shit on them as a whole flock. Moreover, those who did not take part in catching birds were never harmed! Crows learn quickly and, as adults, confidently use simple tools, for example, with a digging stick. Birds are fluent in theft techniques, using a complex strategy when one individual distracts attention, and the second steals food.

5. Cats

These animals owe much of their high intelligence to millennia of living together with humans. Thanks to people, domestic cats have mastered complex behavior patterns and even, oddly enough, learned to speak! Please note that cats communicate with each other by screaming and hissing, and with humans - with a variety of meows and purrs. A cat's tongue is extremely rich! English researcher Alexandra Sellers compiled a cat dictionary, which included more than 3,000 words spoken by Murks and Barsiks, each of which has a clear meaning. Cats are extremely inventive and cunning animals, in addition to being highly trainable. It is not without reason that in many circus performances the performance of cats is the highlight of the program. At the same time, a cat will never do anything it doesn’t want, which, out of ignorance, can be mistaken for dullness. In reality, this is a manifestation of a practical mind. In fact, if a person is forced to do something completely unnecessary for him, he will obviously exclaim, “I’m not a fool to do this”! A smart cat thinks something like this, which also speaks about the independence of her thinking.

4. Dogs

Dogs are confidently the leaders among all animals in terms of the so-called social intelligence. By huddling in packs, dogs demonstrate miracles of self-organization. Each individual in such communities has its own specialization. For example, there are scout dogs, fighters, puppy trainers, elders and even healers who skillfully lick the wounds of their brothers. Of course, dogs communicate with each other by barking, growling and other information-filled sounds. It's hard to count how many words are in a dog's dictionary, but... we're talking about about thousands of concepts and shades of meaning, there is no doubt. The dog learns quickly, knows how to accumulate knowledge, and is familiar with the sense of justice. A dog's intelligence is most evident when interacting with a person. It is easy to teach a dog to count to ten, and the smartest four-legged animals understand up to 150 words in human languages, mostly in the form of commands. By the way, the smartest dog breeds are collies, German shepherds and, oddly enough, poodles.

3. Elephants

Brain size African elephant 4 times more than in humans and reach a mass of 5 kilograms. This absolute record among living beings living on Earth. Scientists say that elephants are self-aware, so they can be considered partially intelligent. It is difficult to argue with this statement, because elephants, just like people, can experience grief, joy, compassion and fun. An undoubted indicator of the highest intelligence of elephants is their ability to altruism, that is, behavior that does not bring immediate benefit, but justifies itself in the long term at the level of a large population. It is widely known that elephants in the wild observe funeral rituals. They cover their fallen brothers with plants and gather around the bodies to honor the memory of the departed elephants. These animals have a phenomenal memory - they can remember for the rest of their lives (and they live up to 70 years) people who have done them harm or, on the contrary, acted kindly. Elephants, like people, have humor, ingenuity, and even an understanding of abstract things. In India, as well as Africa, there is a thriving business selling paintings of elephants' trunks to tourists.

2. Monkeys

The honorable second place in our ranking is occupied by monkeys, namely chimpanzees and orangutans. They are so smart that their IQ is measured according to human parameters. The most advanced monkeys raised by humans have an IQ of 70, which corresponds to the level of a student junior classes. Moreover, the genetic makeup of chimpanzees is 98% identical to that of humans. In the wild great apes communicate using sounds, words and sign language. They make extensive use of tools, such as flat stones for cracking nuts and digging sticks. Chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas live in packs with clear specialization of community members. Like people, packs of monkeys wage wars among themselves over food plots, and also exchange brides and grooms to avoid degeneration. However, the real surprise is caused by monkeys raised by humans. For example, a chimpanzee named Kanzi, trained by scientists at the University of Georgia, understood at least 3,000 English words. And he could use about 500 words by pressing the keys of a special device. There is no doubt - if it were not for man, then in a few hundred thousand years a civilization of monkeys would almost certainly appear on Earth!

1. Dolphins

And the first line of our top is confidently occupied by dolphins, who are most likely intelligent. They communicate with each other using ultrasonic signals-words, of which at least 14,000 have already been identified. And now attention! Vocabulary the average person is only 8,000 words, that is, almost half as much! But that's something else! Dolphins are also ahead of humans in terms of physiological parameters of the brain. The human thinking organ weighs on average 1400 grams, and the mass of a dolphin's brain is 1700 grams. Moreover, it’s a shame, but a dolphin’s brain has much more convolutions! To be fair, a dolphin is potentially smarter than a human. But why then do we catch them in a net and force them to perform in the circus, and not they us? The dolphin's problem is the lack of arms, or rather, palms with fingers that can do delicate work. In addition, in the process of evolution, dolphins did not have to survive hard, competing with others biological species, since in the sea they are at the very top of the food chain. Man had to fight fiercely for a place in the Sun, using his main advantage over others - his intellect and hands to boot. As a result, we learned to write, build cities and create various mechanisms. Thus, dolphins are not inferior to humans in intelligence and are even ahead of us in certain parameters. Without a doubt, they have self-awareness and understanding of abstract phenomena, but in the absence of technical civilization, they remain, albeit the most intelligent, animals.

A huge number of beautiful animals live on our planet. Scientists and specialists have been trying for a long time to determine who is the smartest among them.

10th place: rats

Humanity has been waging war against rats for centuries, but we cannot win. Some biologists are confident that gray rats have a collective intelligence that controls the actions of each individual. This hypothesis explains a lot: the speed with which gray rodents dealt with other species, and the success in their fight against people.
We may hate these gray rodents, but when you recognize their abilities, a feeling of respect automatically arises. The rat is a true superorganism, capable of living and thriving in almost any environment, the vitality of which has been developed over 50 million years.

9th place: octopuses

Octopus is one of the smartest sea creatures. They know how to play, distinguish various shapes and patterns (such as colored light bulbs), solve puzzles, navigate mazes, and have short-term and long-term memory. As a sign of respect for the intelligence of octopuses, some countries in the world have even passed laws requiring the use of anesthesia before performing operations on them.
Octopuses are very curious, which is usually associated with intelligence. In nature, they sometimes build their shelter houses from stones - this also indicates a certain intellectual level.
Various experiments show that octopuses have excellent memory. And the “intelligence” of an animal is primarily determined by the ability of its brain to remember experiences. When your memory is fine, next step- intelligence, which helps to draw conclusions from the experience gained.

8th place: pigeons

Pigeons in large quantities can be found in all major cities, and most of us consider these birds to be “bad” creatures that get under our feet. But numerous scientific experiments show that it is very smart birds. For example, pigeons can remember and recognize hundreds of different images over many years.
A group of scientists from the Japanese Keio University showed through experiments that rock pigeons are able to recognize themselves in the mirror better than small children. Before these studies, it was believed that only humans, primates, dolphins and elephants had such abilities.
The useful skills of pigeons have always been valued. For example, these birds' ability to find their way home and fly quickly made it possible to use them to transmit mail.

7th place: squirrels

One of the widely known distinctive features protein is their ability to store nuts for the winter. Squirrels do not hibernate and must find up to 3,000 hidden nuts to survive. They bury some types of nuts in the ground, others hide them in tree hollows. This work requires incredible effort.
Thanks to their phenomenal memory, squirrels can remember the location of a nut 2 months after they buried it. Fantastic!
Squirrels also have their own thieves, who decide not to get nuts, but wait and watch from ambush until other squirrels begin to bury theirs. winter diet. But for every action there is a counteraction. If the squirrel notices that they are starting to follow it, it pretends to bury the food. While the thief is wasting time on the empty hole, the squirrel moves his nut to another, more secret place. Isn't this the best proof that squirrels have intelligence?
Research shows that squirrels have excellent spatial orientation, and even from the ground they can see which hole leads to the nuts. Squirrels without hesitation fit into the desired hole leading to food.

6th place: pigs

Some scientists claim that a pig's intelligence is roughly equivalent to that of a three-year-old child. Due to their high intelligence, pigs are highly susceptible to stress. Piglets are very attached to their mothers, and if they are separated, especially in early age, they experience this very painfully: the piglet does not eat well and loses a lot of weight. It is not for nothing that Academician Pavlov stated that the pig is the most nervous of the animals surrounding humans.
In terms of learning ability, pigs are at least at the level of cats and dogs, and often surpass them. Even Charles Darwin believed that pigs were at least as intelligent as dogs.
Various studies have been conducted on intelligence among pigs. In one test, the feeder was connected to a computer. A cursor was displayed on the monitor screen, which could be moved using a joystick. Also, the monitor showed special area: if you hit it with the cursor, the feeder automatically opens and the food pours out. Amazingly, the pigs controlled the joystick perfectly and moved the cursor to the right place! Dogs cannot repeat this experiment and are inferior to pigs in intelligence.

5th place: crows

Crows are incredibly intelligent animals. Scientists believe that their analytical thinking abilities are on par with those of great apes.
Crows understand better than many people what red and green lights mean when crossing the street. Crows living in the city collect nuts from trees and place them on the roadway under the wheels of passing cars to open the shells. Then they wait patiently, waiting for the necessary light, return to the road and take their shelled nuts. An impressive example of innovation in the animal kingdom! The important thing is not that the crows learned to do this, but something else is important. This method was first observed in crows about 12 years ago in Tokyo. After this, all the crows in the area adopted this method. Crows learn from each other - that's a fact!
Another example from Sweden. Researchers noticed that crows wait for fishermen to cast their fishing rods into the water, and when they move away, the crows fly in, reel in the fishing rod and eat the fish that was bait.

4th place: elephants

Elephants are animals that are good at showing their emotions, both positive and negative. Their “facial expressions” consist of movements of the head, ears and trunk, with which the elephant can express all sorts of, often subtle, shades of good or bad mood.
Elephants are extremely caring and sensitive to other members of their group, as well as other animal species, which is considered a very advanced form of intelligence. For example, elephants feel very deeply the loss of someone from the herd. They can gather near a dead body for several days. There have been recorded cases of “funerals” when elephants covered their dead comrades with a layer of vegetation.
Elephants have incredibly good memories. Elephants remember a person who treated them well or badly all their lives. There are many examples when the owner offended the elephant, and only years later the elephant took revenge on him, and sometimes even killed him.

3rd place: orangutans

Apes are considered the most smart creatures on Earth after man. Of course, people are biased in this matter, but the mental capabilities of great apes are difficult to deny.
Orangutans are highly cultured and have strong social bonds. Females stay with their children for many years, teaching them everything they need to survive in the forest. For example, orangutans cleverly use leaves as umbrellas from the rain, or remember places where different times trees bear fruit every year. By the age of 10 years, an orangutan can taste and identify more than 200 species of different edible plants.
Great apes, such as chimpanzees and orangutans, are able to recognize themselves in the mirror, while most animals react to their image in the mirror as if they were another individual.
If intelligence is defined as the ability to solve various problems, then orangutans in this sense have no equal in the animal world.

2nd place: dolphins

Like other most intelligent animals, female dolphins stay with their children throughout many years, passing on your knowledge and experience to them. Much of dolphin behavior is passed down through generations.
Dolphins can use tools, which we know is a sign of intelligence. Thus, researchers observed a female dolphin who taught her dolphins to look for food by first wearing a sea sponge so as not to get hurt or burned by the stone fish, which has poisonous thorns on the back.
Dolphins are very social animals. They are characterized by self-awareness and division into separate individuals, who, moreover, think about the future. Research shows that dolphin "society" is complex social structure and consists of individuals who cooperate with each other to solve complex problems, obtain food, etc. In addition, dolphins pass on new behavioral traits and acquired skills to each other.
Dolphins have very well developed imitation behavior. They easily remember and repeat the actions of both their brothers and other individuals from the animal world.

1st place: chimpanzee

These apes are leaders in tool use. Thus, during observations of chimpanzees in the savannah in southeastern Senegal, more than 20 cases of these animals using 26 different tools, from stone hammers to sticks for picking out termites, were recorded.

But the most amazing thing was to watch the production and use of half-meter copies. The chimpanzees not only broke off branches of the required length and thickness, but also cleared them of leaves and smaller branches, peeled off the bark, and sometimes even sharpened the tip of the tool with their teeth.

Another impressive example of the presence of intelligence in chimpanzees. When scientists set the monkeys the task of getting a nut from the bottom of a firmly fixed plastic test tube, some of the monkeys (14 out of 43 individuals) guessed that if they put water in their mouths from a tap and spit it out into a narrow neck, the nut would rise to the surface. 7 chimpanzees completed this task to a victorious end and got to the nut. In addition to chimpanzees, researchers working at an ape sanctuary in Uganda and at the Leipzig Zoo conducted similar experiments on gorillas. However, none of the gorillas managed to lift the nut to the surface by transferring water in their mouth from the tap to the test tube.
Moreover, chimpanzees turned out to be smarter than children in this matter. Scientists conducted the same experiment with several groups of children: 24 four-year-old children and the same number of six and eight years old. Only instead of a tap, the children were given watering cans so that they would not have to carry water with their mouths. The four-year-old children performed worse than the chimpanzees: only two out of 24 completed the task. The highest success rate, as expected, was found in 8-year-old children: 14 out of 24.