Are We the Smartest Species?

For thousands of years, we humans were convinced that we are much smarter than other animals, this in spite of growing evidence to the contrary. (1) For millennia, almost all authorities - from religious to scholars - affirmed that we humans were exceptional due to our much smarter brain and unique ability to reason. This belief likely took hold with the emergence of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, as we learned to domesticate plants but also animals. The development of the major organized religions which ensued helped enshrine this concept, with human beings at the top of the creation hierarchy.

As a result, the belief in the cognitive superiority of humans became entrenched in philosophy as well as in science. (As a side note, this belief in human exceptionalism led some influential philosophers to advocate the concept of duality of mind and body, which sent everyone on a wild goose chase for a long while - some people are still chasing that goose even today)

And it all made sense - after all, as far as we know, no dog can compose music, no dolphin can write books, and no raven can solve differential equations. Only we humans can achieve such feats of the intellect - proof that we are far smarter than all other animals, at least based on our definition of intelligence. And that is where the rub is - from an evolutionary perspective, smarts are about helping a species adapt and thrive in their environment. Nervous systems are information processing engines, built to collect data from the body and the environment and use it to make the best decision possible about what to do next. Different species live in very different environments, leading to a wide array of cognitive abilities to support better decisions in those environments. We humans are better at cognitive tasks such as communication and abstract reasoning - but other animals are far better at tasks that matter far more for survival in their own environment, such as spatial awareness and navigation, or specific problem-solving skills.

Intelligence Fit-For-Purpose

As noted by the biologist Frans de Waal (2), it wasn't until we sought to understand animal intelligence in context, that we started to learn about and appreciate animal cognition.

For instance, it wasn't until the late 1930s that a curious scientist identified echolocation as

the mechanism bats use to navigate. Bats use

ultrasound to detect obstacles and home in on their prey. Their brains process how their sounds bounce off of objects and use that information to judge distance from the prey, the target's speed and direction, and adjust for sudden obstacles or changes in the bat's flight path. This takes sophisticated, real-time processing and interpreting of sound information. It turns out that bats use many of the techniques that we humans eventually developed to improve digital communications, such as frequency modulation, sound filtering and amplification, and the Doppler effect.

How about the use of tools? Chimpanzees have been shown to use tools and shape those for specific tasks. Crows demonstrate impressive planning and problem-solving capabilities when confronted with obstacles to get food. For instance, crows will throw stones into narrow mouthed liquid receptacles, so as to retrieve edible items floating near the surface. (3)

A chimp excelling at a memory test, leaving humans in the dust.

Clark's nutcracker, a form of crow, can't count to ten - but it stores more than 20,000 pine nuts in the fall, in hundreds of different locations spread across many square miles, and then in winter and spring it manages to recover the majority of them. Chimps have been shown to have impressive visual recall abilities - and upset psychologists by beating them handily at some visual IQ tests.

Two killer whales eyeing a Weddell seal for lunch. Photo credit R. Pitman.

Killer whales have shown impressive planning and coordination in hunting for preys - for instance by identifying seals on ice floes, swimming in unison to create a wave that washes the seal off the floe straight into the mouth of one awaiting whale.

Finally, octopus have been shown to open a pill box with a child cap, which requires the cap to be pushed down and twisted at the same time, requiring skill and persistence. Some aquariums show off octopus intelligence by locking the animal in a glass jar with a screw top. In Houdini-like fashion, the octopus take less than a minute to escape. Octopus are a fascinating animal - they have a fully distributed nervous system, with essentially 8 independent thinking arms. As a result, they are exceptionally good at disguise and mimicry, something they rely upon to survive when they navigate in the open and are exposed to predators.

To sum up, are we intrinsically smarter than other animals? No, not really. There is a wide array of cognitive abilities in the animal world - we shine in our areas of strengths, and so do other animals in theirs. And time after time we have discovered capacities in animals which we thought set us apart. One saving grace: once we deigned to come down from our pedestal and be genuinely curious, we were smart enough to discover how smart animals truly are.

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(1) Much of the information provided here is based on Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Frans de Waal passed away in March 2024; he was an eminent biologist who championed animal intelligence and emotion and conducted ample research on the social behavior of primates.

(2) See note above.

(3) See latest finds about crows... and geometry