An article that appeared in the science journal PLOS ONE in July 2014 puts a comparison estimate on that brainpower: the authors concluded that crows are just as good at reasoning as a human seven-year-old child.
They are well-known for being among the smartest animals in the animal kingdom; yet, the more you learn about them, the more awestruck you will be by the depth of their brilliance. In fact, a study has found that crows' reasoning ability rivals that of seven-year-old humans.
Scientists compare the intelligence of crows to that of a seven-year-old human child. Crows, ravens, and other corvids are the only non-primates that make tools. Crows are capable of abstract reasoning, complex problem-solving, and group decision-making.
Crows can remember human faces associated with stressful situations for up to five years and they'll also warn their friends, a study has found.
Crows have been intertwined with mankind for thousands ofyears. They exhibit humanlike characteristics: They play, communicateand have the capacity to deceive. They're smarter than any cat andmost children.
Within the encephalization quotient proposed by Jerison in 1973, values above one are classified big-brained, while values lower than one are small-brained. The domestic cat is attributed a value of between 1–1.71; relative to human value, that is 7.44–7.8.
1: Chimpanzee
Chimpanzees can learn sign language to communicate with humans. Topping our list of smartest animals is another great ape, the chimpanzee. The impressive intellectual abilities of this animal have long fascinated humans.
The Kea has been enlisted by many as the worlds most intelligent bird among top ten intelligent birds. The Kea is found in New Zealand and it is basically a parrot. This extremely intelligent bird knows how to be very crafty when it comes to finding or stealing food.
Here's how scientists found it again. Scientists have captured video of a black-naped pheasant-pigeon on an island in Papua New Guinea. It was the first time the bird had been documented since 1882.
Crows might not know how to accept death, but their funeral rituals point to an understanding that death happens. It may be a combination of brain activity and fear, but crows aren't the only animals to grieve their deceased. Elephants show great interest in the bones of their deceased.
Among birds, crows and ravens (or corvids) are the most intelligent. They have the largest brains for body size; they're more like primates than birds. In fact, some people call them “flying monkeys”. The family Corvidae originated from a forest ancestor in the Australian fragment of Gondwana.
With regard to their intelligence, magpies are very much like fellow corvids – jays, rooks, ravens and crows, says Walt Koenig, a senior scientist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Dolphins are as smart as 3-year olds, and dogs as smart as two-year old children, and some chimps are better... Dolphins are as smart as 3-year olds, and dogs as smart as two-year old children, and some chimps are better at remembering things than any adult I know. But what do intelligence comparisons actually show us?
In Australia, there are five native crow species: Australian raven Corvus coronoides. little raven C. mellori.
The African grey parrot takes the highest avian spot on this list of most intelligent animals. Estimated to be as smart as a five-year-old human, these parrots not only learn human speech, but they can master an impressively large vocabulary (up to hundreds of words).
It belonged to a uniquely Australian family of extinct flightless birds, the dromornithids (mihirungs).
Hoatzins are the only living representatives of one of the most ancient lineages of birds, with origins about 64 million years ago. Young hoatzin have two claws on the bones that support their flight feathers—that is, on their hands.
The common magpie is one of the most intelligent birds—and one of the most intelligent animals to exist. Their brain-to-body-mass ratio is outmatched only by that of humans and equals that of aquatic mammals and great apes.
Dogs can join the police force and monkeys are our fellow primates, but new research found that parrots might be the smartest animal of them all. A new study found that African Grey Parrots performed as well as three-year-old children on a mental test.
Clever and caring
About 80 per cent of corvids live in family groups and about 44 per cent breed co-operatively, where other family members help with feeding the young. New Caledonian crows are one of the brainiest bird species, and parents feed their young for up to two years.
Chimpanzees
We share 99 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, so it comes as no surprise that countless hours of research have been dedicated to understanding the intelligence and behavior of our sister species. This research has firmly established that chimps are one of the most intelligent species on earth.
Dolphins are often cited as the second smartest animals on Earth due to their relatively high brain-to-body size ratio, the capacity to show emotion, and impressive mimicry of the dumb apes who research them.
Smartest Animals: Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, so its no surprise they make the list for most intelligent animals. We share almost 99 percent of our DNA (the little bits of genetic code that make us who we are) with them. It turns out that they share some of our brain power as well.