Top 5 Smartest Animals

by Zach M.

Animals, everybody loves them. And some are smarter than others. For example an elephant and a dung beetle, which one's smarter? The elephant of course.

5. Crows

You may see crows out in your neighborhood on the top of a lampost crowing loudly and just think you dumb bird go away . But don’t be deceived crows are one of the smartest birds in the world. In fact, crows are so smart that they have been known to use a special technique to get nuts from the shells. They get The nuts from trees and knock them into the street and wait for a car to pass and crack the shell. Then the crow swoops down to retrieve the nut. Crows will also use sticks to retrieve food from cramped spaces they can’t fit in. they can fashion snares to grab the food to have a delicious meal.

4. Cephalopods

Are they smart? Well according to studies certain types of cephalopods such as squid, octopi, and cuttlefish are quite smart. Cephalopods brains actually share some similar characteristics with our human brains. On the topic of brains cephalopods’ actually surround their esophagus which is quite unique to their species. Most people say that the cephalopods have an unending curiosity. They also have the ability like some of the animals on this list to learn to use the tools. They are definitely very smart animals.

3. Elephant

Most people would think at the first sight of the elephant, it’s like a giant big and dumb. Well in reality elephants are actually amazingly smart. Elephants are very caring and are able to show empathy to others in its herd or other animals that are in need. Being able to show these kinds of behaviors is considered an advanced form of intelligence. It may not seem like that to us because we do it, so how hard could it be, but they are animals. Elephants also tend to clean their food before they eat. Talk about cleanliness.

2. Dolphins

Do you ever see dolphins jumping in and out of the water, well they could be racing each other. After All dolphins are very social playful animals they like to race, leap, and surf, with each other. They are always around one another in pods communicating in their own language with a series of clicks and whistles. Dolphins are also able to respond to human command and be trained. Dolphins are definitely one of the smartest animals in the world.

1. Chimpanzee

And finally at the top of our list or at the bottom literally speaking the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are a very impressive species of ape. Their genomes are 98 percent identical to that of humans. Chimpanzees are an astounding intellectual, and are known to fashion tools from sticks and hunt in organized groups. Chimps are also capable of very advanced problem solving. Chimpanzees in captivity have been known to learn sign language, for example Woshoe a common chimpanzee was the first non-human to learn sign language. They are able to remember the sign for individuals names’ after not singing them for long periods of time. They must have a good memory. On the topic a test was done between humans and chimps and the chimps performed better than a number of humans on a memory test. Chimpanzees certainly take the cake for smartest animal on Earth.