# 10 smartest animals...after Pigs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723 "2003-07-07T06:02:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/1 "2003-07-07T06:02:11Z")
OK, silly question of the day time; What are the 10 smartest animals—wait for it—after **Pigs?** I ask, because an old reference book of mine gives a list of the 10 smartest animals after humans, as follows: > [@](#): > > 1. Chimpanzee (Two species) > 2. Gorilla > 3. Orangutan > 4. Baboon (Seven species, including drill and mandrill) > 5. Gibbon (Seven species) > 6. Monkey (Many species, especially macaques, the patas, and the Celebes black ape) > 7. Smaller toothed whale (Several species, especially killer whales) > 8. Dolphin (Many of the approx. 80 species) > 9. Elephant (Two species) > 10. Pig But that leaves me to wonder a few things…like, how many animals are “between” Pigs and, say, **Dogs** , in order of intelligence? Has anyone ever made a reliable study of the 20 smartest animals, after humans? Or, at least, made a “ballpark” estimate? Ranchoth ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/2 "2003-07-07T06:52:40Z")
Which book was that in? I don’t know that there’s any objective way to measure the relative intelligence of nonhuman species. **Cecil Adams** discusses the problem in his column [Which is smarter, cats or dogs?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_005.html) ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/3 "2003-07-07T07:15:00Z")
\>\>8. Dolphin (Many of the approx. 80 species)\<\< [southpark] If dolphins are so smart, then why do they keep gettin’ stuck in them nets?" [/cartman] . . . . . . . . Sorry about that - ask a “silly question”… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/4 "2003-07-07T07:29:14Z")
While perhaps not amongst the smartest of animals, racoons are able to get into phenomenonal amounts of trouble due to their opposing digits. An almost obsessive fascination with bright shiny things is no big help either. ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/5 "2003-07-07T10:03:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bibliophage \* > \*\* I don’t know that there’s any objective way to measure the relative intelligence of nonhuman species. \*\* I don’t know of there’s an objective way to measure the relative intelligence of humans, come to think of it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/6 "2003-07-07T12:49:06Z")
Squid & octopi are constantly being re-assessed in their relative intelligence. Usually upward. They are easily the most intelligent invertibrates. Where do they rate? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/7 "2003-07-07T13:01:59Z")
The list will not be valid if the words “possum” or “o’possum” appear anywhere above the word “slug.” My favorite “why did the chicken cross…” joke is “to show a possum that it **could** be done.” Somebody else said that possums are born dead in the road. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/8 "2003-07-07T13:46:43Z")
I admit to being astonished that dogs aren’t on the OP’s list. I’ve seen border collies solve 2 and 3 part problems in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/9 "2003-07-07T20:18:42Z")
That list has some seriously weird categories. Dolphins are “smaller toothed whales”, and gibbons are monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/10 "2003-07-07T20:33:45Z")
Well, squirrels are diabolically clever, as anyone with a bird feeder will attest. Their acrobatic skills are well known and impressive enough in their own right… but I swear, I’ve seen squirrels sitting on the patio in my back yard looking up at feeders, studying them, and considering the best approach to getting the food for a minute or two, before climbing up the tree and getting right to the food. Mind you, these feeders were advertised as “squirrel-proof!” In reality, all they did was provide the squirrels with a mental challenge. And the squirrels were always up to the challenge. After looking over the feeders from a distance, and doing a little quick analysis, a squirrel will crack the toughest feeder. - And after seeing all the ways my little brother’s pet gerbils found to escape from their tank (they figured out how to jam the wheel with wood shavings, so that it wouldn’t spin, then climbed to the top of the wheel and started chewing through the plastic ceiling!)… I’m prepared to say that rodents in general are mighty smart. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/11 "2003-07-08T04:25:02Z")
You might want to check out [Alex, the African Grey Parrot](http://www.alexfoundation.org/). Dr. Pepperburg makes a good case that the African Gray Parrot may be smarter than just about all the animals on your list. Certainly it does a great job on the standard tests of intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/12 "2003-07-08T04:59:00Z")
Good call, **Sam**. A friend of mine is a published author on parrots and she says that Alex has forced the scientific community to entirely reassess the ranking of avian intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/13 "2003-07-08T06:20:16Z")
What about the littliest hobbo. He seemed dead clever as he helped out people each week ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-smartest-animals-after-pigs/186723/14 "2003-07-09T02:55:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*That list has some seriously weird categories. Dolphins are “smaller toothed whales”, and gibbons are monkeys. \*\* Gibbons are apes. See [here](http://staff.washington.edu/timk/primate/PrimateWeek/Hlar/).