Animal Intelligence

Animal Intelligence: Research on planning, tool use, memory and self recognition has shown that crows, octopuses, apes, elephants and even insects solve problems in ways once thought uniquely human, and it keeps pushing scientists to rethink where minds begin.

Western Scrub Jay: In experiments at Cambridge, these birds cached food in the places where they expected to be hungry the next morning, evidence that they plan for the future rather than just reacting to the present.

Santino: A chimpanzee at Sweden's Furuvik Zoo calmly collected and stockpiled stones in the morning, then hurled them at visitors later in the day, a documented case of planned aggression.

Betty The Crow: In a 2002 experiment, this New Caledonian crow bent a straight piece of wire into a hook to lift a bucket of food, making a tool she had not been trained to build.

Alex The African Grey: Irene Pepperberg's parrot learned dozens of object names and numbers, understood concepts of same and different, and reportedly said his last words to her as 'You be good. I love you.'

Kanzi: This bonobo learned to communicate through symbols on a keyboard and, with coaching, made and used sharp stone flakes to cut a cord to reach food.

Coconut Octopus: Scientists filmed this species carrying coconut shell halves across the seafloor to use later as a shelter, a rare case of an invertebrate carrying a tool for future use.

Inky The Octopus: In 2016 he escaped from New Zealand's National Aquarium by slipping through a gap in his tank, crossing the floor and sliding down a drainpipe to the sea.

Happy The Elephant: In 2006 this Bronx Zoo elephant became the first of her species to pass the mirror test, touching a mark on her head that she could only see in the mirror.

Cleaner Wrasse: Researchers in Japan reported in 2019 that these small fish reacted to marks on their bodies by scraping them in front of a mirror, a result that startled scientists.

Kelly The Dolphin: Trained to trade litter for fish, she figured out she could hide a piece under a rock and tear off small bits, turning one scrap into many rewards.

Chaser: The border collie owned by psychologist John Pilley learned the names of more than a thousand toys and could pick out a new one through elimination.

Bumblebee Soccer Experiment: In a 2017 study, bumblebees learned to roll a ball into a goal for a sugar reward, and bees that watched a trained demonstrator even improved on the method.

Matabele Ants: These African ants carry injured nestmates back to the nest after battles with termites, and the wounded ones recover and fight again.

Sendai Crows: Crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have been filmed dropping walnuts in front of cars at crosswalks, then waiting for the light to change before collecting the cracked nuts.

Shigeru Watanabe Pigeon Study: In a 1995 experiment, pigeons learned to tell paintings by Monet from those by Picasso and could generalize to works they had never seen.

Ayumu: This young chimpanzee outperformed human adults in a memory test that required remembering the positions of numbers flashed on a screen for a fraction of a second.

Kosik: An Asian elephant in South Korea was found to imitate human words such as annyong, using his trunk inside his mouth to shape sounds.

Clever Hans: A horse that seemed to solve arithmetic problems in early twentieth century Berlin was found to be reading tiny cues from his questioner, a lesson in how to test animal minds.

Cuttlefish Marshmallow Test: In a 2021 study, cuttlefish waited longer for a preferred meal when it meant a better reward, showing delayed gratification in a mollusc.

Greater Honeyguide: This African bird leads humans to wild bee nests with special calls, and in return people open the hive and leave wax for the bird in a cooperation between species.

Archerfish: In a 2016 study, these fish that shoot water at insects learned to distinguish between human faces and picked the right one for a reward.

David Greybeard: The chimpanzee Jane Goodall watched in 1960 stripping twigs to fish termites from a mound, helping overturn the idea that only humans make tools.

Magpie Mirror Test: In a 2008 experiment, European magpies tried to remove marks from their own throats after seeing them in a mirror, a first for birds.

Rat Hide And Seek Study: Researchers in Berlin in 2019 found that rats play hide and seek with humans, running and leaping for joy when they succeeded in finding or hiding.