I have always argued this with my wife who is impressed by how smart our cats are because they learned to meow at us if they want out.
My feeling is that a predator like a cat only has to be slightly smarter than their prey, and it’s not a complement to call someone a bird brain. Flying is a difficult task, and it’s a bit easier if you can save some weight by shaving off a few excess neurons.
I owned an old siamese a long time a go back in Texas. We had pyracantha bushes in the front. The birds would eat the berries, the berries would ferment in their stomach, and the birds would stumble around drunk. Our cat would simply wait outside by the bushes during the summer. The birds would ignore him and eat the berries, get drunk, and then stumble around and become kitty food.
I don’t think this marks him as being a really smart cat as much as it marks the birds as being really dumb birds.
This comment will probably hijack this thread because some people feel so strongly about it. Domesticated cats are not smart animals. I like them in general and have owned many but I am not sure why people ever make the comparison to dogs or, god forbid, claim that they are smarter than dogs for some immeasurable reason such as refusing to follow commands because they are just independent and deep thinkers. No, they are just the hedonistic stoners of the pet world and can’t solve many problems on their own which is the way that we usually define intelligence. I am sure that someone will provide a link showing how cats can play with toilet paper or (mis)spell words. Show me a cat that can solve problems better than a border collie or even an average mut or probably even an invertebrate like an octopus and I will send you a $100 bill.
If you ever had a friend that always got really high and ended up in ridiculous situations that he or she was unable to figure their way out of, they ended up as a cat after they killed themselves due to stupidity if Hinduism is to be believed. That concept applies for cats stuck in trees.
Interestingly, some research going into birds shows them to be more intelligent than thought. For instance, birdsong is not just repetitions of patterns, but creative variations.
Shagnasty said:
One of the posters on this board (I think it is ChefTroy) had a cat that discovered a way out of a locked apartment that involved jumping through a spot on the wall that folded out of the way. This spot was unnoticeable by the owner and only found when the action was witnessed. By the way, the spot was high on the wall next to the ceiling, and the cat had to clear some distance (`6 ft IIRC) from a counter by leaping through the air in order to hit the right spot to go through. How in the world the cat knew the wall in that one spot wasn’t solid is a mystery.
Another example: I’ve had cats that could open doors by pulling them open from the bottom. Yeah, only works if the latch isn’t fully set, but have yet to see a dog pull that off.
I have three cats that can do that. One smart one that figured it out, and two less-smart ones that learned from watching her. I also have a fourth cat, who can’t pull open a door that’s already open. If it’s open far enough for her to slip through, she’ll usually manage that; but if it’s not, she’ll paw it it and push it all the way closed. I’m pretty sure that qazwart’s drunken birds would have been pretty safe around her.
I haven’t seen her try to climb down from a tree. We don’t let her outside, for obvious reasons.
I’m not arguing that cats as a whole are smarter than dogs. I certainly agree that the variation within the populations is pretty vast, both dogs and cats.
But Shagnasty asked about cats solving problems better than dogs, and I listed examples of cats solving problems.
I’m waiting for my $100 bill. PM me for mailing instructions. :dubious: