The 7 Smartest Animals In The World | Answers With Joe

[@andie_pants]

I once got a little peek after hours at an aquarium and got to see the divers cleaning the tanks. The gentleman escorting us said that the divers love the octopus tank because she is playful and affectionate... very cat-like. The guide said that often the divers will take a second to sit cross-legged and the octopus will crawl into their lap for pets. That story still makes me smile. :-)

[@heywoodjablome8475]

That's awesome. How can we determine octopus intelligence? We have no idea how to understand and evaluate 8 arm, weightless, boneless logic.

[@ubayyd]

Awesome.

[@jssomewhere6740]

Now it made me smile too. Thanks.

[@hunterflowerson4460]

@@heywoodjablome8475 Theres been a lot of pretty interesting studies conducted on them and little experiments

[@DragonFanngg]

Now I need some octopus cuddles in my life. Seems like that's I was missing all these years.

[@kristimcgowandarkoscellard3126]

Here is my cool smart pet story: When I was 10 my stepfather had an African grey parrot named Bird and a giant Mastiff dog named Rink. One day Bird decided he wanted to play a joke on Rink. So, every day around 30 minutes or so after I got home from school Rink and I would be chilling on my bed watching T.V. when all of a sudden we would hear my stepfather coming in closing the door and calling Rink to the front of the house. Rink would jump off my bed, haul ass into the living room and go sliding across the 1930s era hardwood floors with his tail wagging expecting see my stepfather standing there. What he got instead was Bird laughing hysterically 😱 Poor dog, it took him a couple of months to realize my stepfather never got home before 5 o’clock during the week so if he heard him calling it was most likely Bird doing the calling. Even better than that, it took me a couple of months to realize Bird started doing this because he was jealous of us hanging out in my room with out him. When I finally figured out that was the reason, after school when I got home I would go get Bird out of his cage and bring him in my room with Rink and I. That did it, he stopped torturing poor Rink and only messed with him occasionally just to let him know who was boss 😱 That is one of my fondest memories from my childhood. I am 50 now and poor old Rink is long gone. Bird on the other hand is still going strong 😁 African Grey’s can have a lifespan of more than 60 years. Cheers

[@calamityjean1525]

That is a cool smart pet story! Is Bird still living with your stepfather?

[@kristimcgowandarkoscellard3126]

Calamity Jean: yes, he lives with my stepfather who sadly isn’t my stepfather anymore ☹️ Bird was a real character! My stepfather bought Bird of guy who owned a bar and kept him there in the bar. While Bird was living in that bar he apparently heard a dog getting run over by a car out in the parking lot and it stuck with him. Once he was living with us, every morning at around 5 a.m. he would make the sounds of a car slamming on its brakes, a loud thud, glass breaking and a dog howling in pain.!☹️ It drove my mother crazy! Another one of his favorite jokes to play on us sometimes is: the phone would ring and we would hear my mother say “hello”, we thought she answered the phone only to hear it ring again 🤣 he was also an escape artist! No matter what my stepfather did to try and lock the door to his cage, Bird would always figure out how to unlock it and be sitting on top of his cage waiting for him when he got home! My stepfather eventually gave up and stopped trying to lock him in. He figured if Bird was this genius at picking locks, he earned the right to be free. 😁 I also saw first hand that Bird was not just mimicking what he heard, he actually understood what he was saying. Cheers

[@calamityjean1525]

@@kristimcgowandarkoscellard3126 Too often stepparents and stepchildren clash, so it's nice to see you like your stepfather. That Bird is amazingly smart, and also clearly endowed with a wicked sense of humor. Since there's a fair chance that Bird will survive stepdad, I hope he has someone picked out that will take over Bird's guardianship.

[@kristimcgowandarkoscellard3126]

Calamity Jean: oh yes, I loved my stepfather! He was a great guy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if old Bird out lived us all! 😁 Until you experience one of these amazing creatures yourself it is hard to believe how intelligent they truly are! I think human beings like to tell themselves that animals don’t have emotions like they do and aren’t intelligent like they are so that they can eat them! ☹️ Cheers

[@WhiteFyre]

That's amazing! Bird must be a wise old owl now! 😁

[@quicklearnerspoint9616]

If I had a talking parrot, the first thing I would teach it to say is "Help, they've turned me into a parrot!

[@rusmiller816]

"But I'll get better."

[@jasonlast7091]

@@rusmiller816 Who are you so wise in the ways of Science.

[@AaronKaiMCDNLD]

or "this form is very limiting, must find a new vessel"

[@aussiedonaldduck2854]

I was going to do that but my Parrot was dead and the shop wouldn't give me my money back!

[@WyattCayer]

Teach "him/her" They aren't an "it"

[@aubreystevens4921]

One day I was eating a snack outside on campus with many other students around. When all of a sudden a crow swoops down and lands on the bench 12” away from me. The crow had been checking out my pop-tart and asked very politely for a bite. He asked by making a purrrr-click*click* noise. I was so impressed and the students walking by thought for sure it was a pet of mine. After the first treat the crow was inching its way closer for more. I couldn’t resist and gave it one more crust-crumble bite off the pop-tart. I’ll never forget that sound the crow made. That crow hung out with me for like 3 minutes- it may have been just using me for some pop-tart bites- but I didn’t mind; just to be that close to a critter- to have that critter show empathy and sweetness to ask for something so politely- I was in awe.

[@justpeachy7139]

Oh my goodness! I am in corn counrty, anyone around here knows how smart and devious they are. Rather it's trying to put out a bird feeder or feeding pets and livestock those devious devils are crafty and smart! Maybe I should start leaving an offering to my future overlords lol!

[@marcinwitkowski217]

Love that story it's amazing! I myself have an ongoing story about this stray ginger haired cat,i never had any cats before and i don't know much about them also I'm very allergic to them but nevertheless that small buddy charmed me! He started visiting us near spring but up until recently he was still very cautious of everyone at my workplace and yesterday at night we had breakthrough that kitten came to me when i called him and he let me to pet him,it started purring and after that he even bit me tightly (not piercing my skin i get it as some kind of cat play but im not sure)

[@kendallkahl8725]

I'm allergic to cats but kept several as outdoor pets except they were allowed into our solarium where my Dad grew plants and we played on the pool table. When kept as an outdoor pet cats act way more like dogs.

[@markbeames7852]

Empathy? YOU showed empathy. Not the crow.

[@anandsharma7430]

There's probably other people there who feed the crow on that sound. He tried it with you and you turned out to be a smart human.

[@GeoPerspective]

I have a pretty big dog. Every single time he walks down the stairs he forgets to look up when he gets to the bottom and bangs his chin on the floor. Then he looks around with this shocked look as if he has not done it a million times before.

[@yondie491]

Reminds me of one of my cats that gets mad at US when he falls asleep high up, rolls over, and wakes up upon hitting the ground. What a luvable idiot, he's so great!

[@GeoPerspective]

@@yondie491 the stupider the more lovable

[@Mwongeli-gl2kz]

This is so cute

[@BloodAsp]

I laughed out loud at this.

[@edgeiscool4738]

Watch out ur dog is trolling u bro, it knows that u see it... Try record it while you are out and you will see a different story.

[@denidimitrova7241]

I’ve always loved animals so growing up I would pet, hug, wave at, talk to any animal I see, especially stray dogs. I grew up in Eastern Europe and only a decade ago every city had multiple packs of stray dogs basically owning the streets. So I would befriend the local chapter of the dog gang and keep in touch - treats, pets, the usual. The leader of the local pack was a tall male grey dog, beautiful! He wasn’t old but he was definitely respectable and he didn’t allow anyone to pet him. He didn’t wag his tail or do ‘the puppy eyes’, he was the boss and he owned it. I was in my late teens walking home from a bar in the middle of the night. I lived in town so it was a short, familiar walk and I’d done it many times before, being no stranger to spending all my money on drinks. Teenagers.. Anywho, I was about 10mins from my front door when I noticed a man walking behind me. At first I didn’t pay much attention but as I walked on I noticed he is not just walking home, like me. He was deliberately walking after me. I glanced back at him and at the moment our eyes met he sped up towards me. I figure he was hoping to surprise me and I ruined it so he was going for it now. I looked around and there was no one around to call for help, not even cars driving by. I was in serious trouble. And out of nowhere the big grey stray dog that runs the neighbourhood jumped between me and the man and started growling at him. He was joined by 4 or 5 dogs from his pack and they circled the man, baring teeth, barking, growling. He took a step back and made a run for it, away from me and my pack of heroes. So that’s how I was saved by a dog that never even let me pet it. For some reason he thought I was worth saving. That’s pretty smart.

[@GreenIsTheWayForward]

Wow good story, thanks!

[@elementj4830]

Bruh that should be a short movie that was awesome

[@alf155v6]

Яко :) Повечето животни надушват добротата у човека. "Еmpathy is a sign of intelligence"

[@Pancunian]

Yep, even made me want to have a bash using this premis for s shorrt story. If you write you should have a go!

[@bryku]

Probably thought you were part of its pack lol.

[@maybememory1]

So, my take away from this is: When out in nature, feed the crows. You never know when you might need a friend.

[@thesecondslit1710]

Cria cuervos... hehe

[@solgato5186]

and don't pick up goose feathers around them, holy shit you never live it down

[@lyndao7356]

When you see a crow repeatedly dropping a packet of cheese and peanut butter crackers at an intersection do it a favor by opening it for him or her.

[@frankalbe8996]

A bunch of crows is called a murder.

[@markhonea2461]

I have a murder of crows that follow me from home to the bus stop and wait for their treats/breakfast👍. Yes i would rather have them on my side than otherwise.😉

[@Goralyna123]

I suffer from anxiety and depression, and when I was really sick, I found myself standing in the kitchen, not knowing what to do next and feeling very distressed. Our cat, who didn’t like being touched or cuddled unless she instigated it, jumped down from the couch, walked in a circle around me, walked back to the couch and meowed. She did it 3 times, and it was clear that she wanted me to sit on the couch and rest. So I sat where she indicated, and she jumped on my lap and stayed with me so I would feel better. Very sweet.

[@eeccee11]

They know ❤

[@pepelucho1751]

Cats could care less. I've had literally hundreds, if not a thousand cats. I have currently maybe 40 with me that stay in the house, with 5 more that arrived today (a litter). I'm not a crazy cat person, but I've lived with 3 cat ladies. I've had a great opportunity to study and learn about cats firsthand, especially how they act individually and as a group, and how they think. Besides mother's and kittens (and that varies from mother to mother), cats don't seem to display empathy. It is interesting how some mothers care for all kittens, regardless who the actual mother is. Many of them will take care, or feed any kitten, even if it is an older kitten that doesn't need any damn milk, and that much older, maybe say around 11 in human equivalency kitten doesn't care if it's taking from kittens that do. Some mothers stop feeding their own kittens to feed those other greedy bastards. If cats are intelligent, I have not seen it demonstrated. It took me several years to try and get them out of the front yard with this current cat ladies cats, yes they've all been separate colonies with little to no connection to the previous. I didn't want them in the front because that's where the cars are. I've seen too many cats run over for one life. It was definitely the leading cause of death for a while. It was through conditioning and strategy that I figured out how to get them not to go in the front. Not their own self-preservation. They'd see another get run over and not flinch. Sociopaths at the least, possibly psychopaths. Their absolute favorite game is to kill an animal, and all of them, play with the body. Sometimes they eat it, sometimes they don't. They're well fed, so they don't care if they eat it or not. Stop projecting your human emotions on them. It's a facade you concoct in your mind. Any question ever about cats, you ask me. I am both a scientist, and a person that's had way too many cats. I'm more than likely the cat expert of the world

[@Yogsothos]

@@pepelucho1751 Not all cats are created equal. In many cases it depends on breed, environment and their personality. Having tons of cats in one location will create a very specific condition. Just like humans in highly populated areas. Yes, like humans, cats are often assholes, indifferent and even downright stupid/mean. Though I would bet money that among those cats you mention, there were some who were smart, potentially empathetic and so on. Your comment displays so much bias it's obvious you dislike cats to some degree. Definitely not any kind of expert to be sure.

[@patrickgroening5664]

@@pepelucho1751idk man you just sound crazy lmfao

[@pepelucho1751]

@patrickgroening5664 all humans are crazy; get used to that fact. I'm not sure what you specifically mean, but sure. That was a fairly tame post based on experience, but I'm sure you have your reasons for dismissing it as crazy. If you have specific criticisms, please elaborate. It's always helpful to explore both sides

[@zmanicminer]

As a kid I visited a woman who rescued and kept dozens of animals in her house. She had a crow that could bark, meow and nearly vocalize words, and it had a wicked sense of humor, always playing pranks on the other animals. I've always had respect for crows after that.

[@angrydoggy9170]

That reminds me of me searching for the kitten meowing in the bushes behind my house. It took me days to realise it was a jay imitating a kitten. He must have laughed his head off whilst enjoying the cat treats I left for that imaginary kitten.

[@mongke1000]

Last month I heard truly desperate kitten screams coming from the backyard. I practically went ballistic trying to find the poor thing. Until I realized the screams came from above, in the branches of the one tree at the back of the property. Never got to see the bird but he tried the stunt for a few days before moving on.

[@Nik.No.K]

I’d be really curious as to what kind of pranks a crow would pull

[@Bunchoeves]

I was walking my dog in my neighborhood when I realized one of the local birds was doing car alarm patterns: twe twe twe, TWee TWee TWee, twegedatwe twegedatwe twegedatwe every one in a pattern of three and exactly as you would hear an old car alarm. We do have black birds and crows and the occasional mockingbird but I'm not sure what kind of bird this was.

[@tombombadil3185]

@@Nik.No.K I saw Ravens doing crazy things while in AK. They would even prank eagles. They also would turn over and kick at crows pursuing them in flight.

[@cleoharper1842]

I'm so glad you included crows!! I used to feed them twice a day (until I got a dog who didn't want to share me). Depending on the time of year I would have between 50 and 200 crows show up at sunrise and sunset. If I overslept they would take turns racing by my bedroom window, waking me by casting shadows, or dropping pebbles on my metal roof. They called me out of my house once with the most horrifying racket you've ever heard: one of the family had been taken out by a hawk, with the hawk breaking its neck the crow had fallen back to the earth in my yard, dead. I let them have their funeral for awhile then carefully, respectfully wrapped it in a towel in order to bury it. After that it was like I was one of them: they would fly up near the table I sat at on the porch to watch me draw, say hello, or any of a number of various interactions - as long as it was at a safe distance. They never seemed to want to interact more than that and I didn't push. When there was a new generation there would be what I called a "ceremony day:" while feedings were silent procedures with only the sound of so many wings, the next generation would show up with the adults one day and there'd be the sound of all these tiny cheeps in the air as they celebrated their gathering spot. Finally, when my howling beagle came into the picture I had to distance myself from the crows, and they seemed to understand. Honestly I think they were glad I wasn't alone anymore. A parting gift was a perfectly clean sheet of paper dropped onto my porch - for my drawing habit. Had I not seen it flutter down with my own eyes I would have thought someone was messing with me. To this day I have no idea where they got the paper from, but it looked like printer paper to me. Never once did a single crow poop on our house or car, or tear apart our windshield wipers, or tear open our trash. Also, when I had to go out several would follow me to my appointment and "look after" me until I got home - even to my doctor's office which was 16 miles away. Once my dog entered the picture they stopped following the car - I assume it was because he was picking up the slack.

[@SinginHigh]

A few years ago (10) the hospital I worked at had literally hundreds of crows flocking in the trees lining a smaller street in the complex. For about two weeks they created quite a ruckus. Then they started flying away till all were gone. I watched a nature documentary about birds that described the exact thing that happened at the hospital. They were all single, unpaired youngsters who flocked together to find a mate. Once successful the two would fly off, never to join the "singles club" again. A town 26 miles away had the same event happen last year.

[@cleoharper1842]

@@SinginHigh Yep I know how that goes. My yard was a singles club for a few years!

[@bourbonbiscuits8729]

#youNeedToBeInAdocumentaryToShowUrExperience

[@cleoharper1842]

@@bourbonbiscuits8729 My experience is just that: my own. There was nothing scientific about it - just my own everyday observations. Perhaps if I had kept a journal or something I could pass it on to a professional but honestly the thought never crossed my mind. I'm one of thousands, though, if not millions, who have passed the time watching the crows. But thank you for the sweet words - unless you were teasing me. :-D

[@mollysministuff]

Wow, this is beautiful.

[@bloodyneptune]

There's another detail about the mask experiment with the crows: some of the researchers wore _different_ masks, ones not worn originally, and they only went after the ones wearing the original masks. So they didn't just tell each other 'mask people bad', they conveyed specific _descriptions_ of the masks, _and_ did that generationally. Which is just beyond amazing, I love crows

[@fokkenhotz1]

cows love to be eaten up newyork strip mmmm

[@John-Perry]

@@fokkenhotz1 Lol, what do cows have to do with crows?

[@cytherians]

Ravens too. They are surprisingly adept problem solvers. Even better than dogs!

[@petergrebinger7388]

Yes the crows are fascinating shows they are communicating in a complex way

[@petergrebinger7388]

Yes it's amazing. I don't know if it was the same. Show bit the one crow would start the car for the lady and fly next to it

[@frankboff1260]

I’ll never forget my daughter who was 3 at the time, playing with the goats from next door. I overheard her speaking to the goats and I said ‘ they don’t understand English ‘. So she says ‘ come here brown goat and it does, then says ‘come here white goat’ and white goat obliges. She looked up at me and said ‘see’. I couldn’t argue with that evidence now could I? 😂

[@creditcrazy597]

I have a similar case with my cat Vladimir. However he only ever "understands" English when I'm talking to him. He just ignores everyone else. Honestly I'm pretty sure he even made his own language to communicate with me as he always greets me with a long meaw ending with a short he'd bob. Then he'd bob his head up and short meaw as his sort of goodbye. A part of me wonders if he was studying me like many scientists study animal intelligence.

[@VGlauren]

About Alex the African grey: Alex was the only non-human animal ever recorded to ask a question about himself. He was able to identify a number of colors, but when he saw himself in a mirror, he asked "What color?" Even apes trained in sign language haven't been observed asking questions about themselves. He could also understand relative concepts like bigger/smaller, and same/different. He even invented some of his own words, and deliberately tried to train his caretakers to use those words, "correcting" them if he thought they used the wrong one. He even seemed to understand "I'm sorry," at least he understood that it was a phrase that diffused tension or could help make someone less upset.

[@mary9983]

You should check out Bunny the talking dog and Billie the talking cat. Its AMAZING the awareness they both have. Bunny even has her own jokes, understands making a mistake, fear, and able to communicate wants.

[@Hummmminify]

Wow....I hope we don't destroy the Earth for all these great creatures.

[@VeganV5912]

@@mary9983 .. . Are you vegan or are you hurting innocent animals, bludgeoned to death, for a burger. 5 minute burger ???

[@ephennell4ever]

I volunteered for a while at a local animal shelter; there was a Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo kept at the counter, that was the shelter 'mascot', named - if I remember correctly - 'Bobby'. He had quite a selection of words and phrases he could use ... "Bobby is a good bird", and "Can I help you?" (remember, he was kept at the counter), and "Who is a good bird?", and "Who wants a treat?" (very popular with the little ones!), and of course a 'wolf whistle' (so perfect that some gals *insisted* that some person had been rude to them!), and some 'unprintable' material that he sometimes seemed to 'be in the mood for', and we'd have to move him into the 'side room'. One day, as we were winding-down, & I was helping clean-up, Bobby said - at full volume, meaning *loud!* - "I am a good bird!" ... I looked up in surprise because I'd never heard him say that before. The supervisor was looking surprised too, so I asked her if somebody had recently been teaching him that one, and she said that she'd never heard it, either from him or from anybody talking to him. I had recently read an article that said that no animal that used any form of language with humans, whether 'vocal' (like parrots), or 'displayed' (like with chimps or dolphins) had ever used the 'first person' correctly, except 'as scripted', as a 'repetitively trained' example! But it sounded like Bobby had taken "Bobby is a good bird!" and from 'listening-in' had figured how/when to use "I am" instead of "Bobby is" ... *Wow!*

[@mary9983]

@@ephennell4ever it probably came from his previous owner/caregiver. My mom has an Double Yellow Headed Amazon parrot that came from an older couple before our family. He had picked up all kinds of words from them. One rare phrase was "Dolly, come here" and click (like to a horse or dog), but only when he was left in a room alone. We were like wtf? Lol. My mom called the previous owner. Turns out they had had a dog named Dolly AGES ago, and the bird would call Dolly when he was lonely or trying to get the owners attention. Parrots are insanely smart and live for a long time!

[@TheScrubExpress]

My mom always tells me about how one of her schoolmates back in the 50s had a crow that they raised when they found it out of the nest. That crow was apparently *always* at the school bus stop waiting for their favorite human to get home.

[@icarusbinns3156]

That’s like my magpie, Tikka. I got him to trust me at my old apartment. Lots of snacks and just talking to him. He calls me Hat, on account of the pin-coated one I always wear. About a year ago, we had these super-cold nights, -8°F. It hurt to breathe. I smuggled Tikka into the apartment, explaining that he had to be quiet, since my roommates hated birds and we weren’t allowed pets. Tikka stayed quiet all night, and even yanked a loose shirt over himself to remain hidden. He has even followed me to my new house! And on cold nights, he taps at my window to come inside. He knows to hide from the cats… or he sits out of reach, taunting them. Like a jerk. Still love this silly bird. Not an official pet, but try telling HIM that!

[@nowthatsjustducky]

@@icarusbinns3156 Much love to Tikka from Eastern Oregon, where I just befriended a crow couple, new "neighbors" just down the street.

[@jackwilson4284]

My Jack Russel will bark at the door to be let out, then run back and steal the warm spot on the chair you just vacated.

[@AdrianMulligan]

I love Jacks

[@saginawdan]

@@AdrianMulligan They're crazy!

[@onlyonewhyphy]

To the Kennels!

[@hunter-ie8mv]

I got one of these mf and they are crazy smart, yet fucking assholes incredible.

[@Xeidasx]

I just laughed out loud haha

[@ligurian728]

I love the story that was in the WSJ like 40 years ago about parrots. This one guy had an African Grey that was as smart as a 6 year old and could speak sentences and do simple math. But it was also as emotionally immature as a 6 year old. The researcher was running the parrot through his paces when the parrot stopped giving correct answers. He said, "what's 12 divided by 4?". And the parrot would say something nonsensical like "blanket". The researcher said, "Well he's done for the day. We'll get nothing more out of him." and he left the room. The reporter was standing next to the cage and parrot sidled over on his perch to the reporter and said, "three". Another guy had a parrot who knew to ask for different fruit including bananas and cherries. The parrot had never had an apple before and he was given an apple slice. The parrot ate the slice and the researched asked what was that fruit, and the parrot said, "banerry". It's white inside like a banana and red outside like an apple so he created a new word to name the fruit. Love that stuff.

[@jefffritts68]

your dog is a genius.... HE TRAINED YOU TO GET UP AND OPEN THE DOOR SO HE DOESNT HAVE TO WALK AROUND LOL

[@Nikenik2001]

a true master adapter of his environment .

[@Kenji1685]

🤣🤣🤣

[@jacepadgett2349]

WHY ARE YOU YELLING

[@oxenford539]

LOUD NOISES

[@jdrab]

That dog must be a cat :D

[@Dodexus]

My African Gray scolds the cats in my voice when they sharpen their claws on the furniture. With this and a plethora of other things, he scares me with how smart he is sometimes.

[@nikkiscotland8860]

Mine does cat fight and adds in dog barking and has lamb and horse noises they amazing

[@lauriepalmer3593]

Very helpful little buddy!

[@cytherians]

Eclectus bird: "Hello. Hello. . . . . . . Hello. . . . . . HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" Yeah, he changes the inflection totally because no one was responding. When you respond, he then answers in a very polite "Hello." I once heard him "rehearse" his hello's. So many different ways he'd say it, mimicking human emotion. Even ones we never taught him!

[@tylerkrug7719]

That's so cool!

[@nowthatsjustducky]

We have alien intelligence right here on Earth. I will happily be the ambassador to the Corvid Race, once we can crack their languages and actually truly communicate with them. :D

[@avarand9601]

I’m watching this across the room from my parrot who is happily asleep in this warm room because she figured out how to turn the AC unit off

[@kaminaridenki2481]

I know bu I’m tired of sleep omg snow daybev cpunent didn’t have anymore -

[@turtleboy6969]

bruh imagine middle of the night you wondering why you in the sahara then in the antartic lol

[@gram.]

@@turtleboy6969 bruh lowkey would be like ayy mang dis be real cold yo but den be like shii I be real warm fo real dawg

[@apacheattackhelicopter8778]

@@gram. I had a stroke reading that

[@imawallass]

@@apacheattackhelicopter8778 Actually, I think he had a stroke.

[@KapriciousT]

I used to work in Death Valley. There was at least one raven who had figured out how to retrieve food from "bird-proof" garbage cans. These are not open-topped, but rather have lids with small openings in the center. I watched a raven one day reach into the small opening with its beak, take hold of the plastic bag, pull it through the small opening, and hold it down with its talons. It repeated the process, beak over claw, until it had pulled the bottom of the bag with its contents to the surface. But the really scary thing I witnessed there involved the coyotes. I was driving along a road in the middle of the day when I saw a coyote just standing in the middle of the road. I slowed down, but the coyote did not move as I approached. When I finally came to a stop, two more coyotes popped out of a ditch on the side of the road and flanked my car. They had figured out how to stop tourists so they could be fed scraps out the windows.

[@GreenIsTheWayForward]

A few years ago I was visiting my mother in winter. She had one of these bird feed things hanging in the garden, a bulb of fat the size of a child's fist, with embedded seeds, inside a net, hanging from a branch by a string of about 20 cm. Small birds would come one by one, hang on to the net, and eat tiny pieces. Then a group of jackdaws (small kind of crow) came, and also tried to eat from it, but found they were too heavy to stabilize themselves while hanging on to the net. Next they just sat around and looked at it for a few minutes, and were cawing a lot. I would swear they were analyzing and debating the puzzle. Then one flew to the branch and roped the bulb up to take the weight of it, another untied the knot with its beak, and they all flew of with it. We laughed our asses off, our minds blown :P

[@patriciaburns1033]

I had an experience with a couple of crows recently, I ride a bike everywhere and a few weeks ago I had stopped at a red light and a crow landed on my handlebar which fascinated me , it then flew to the grass at the side of the road where there was another crow standing by a bush with berries on it and part of the bush was on the outside of a mesh fence and part inside, the outside had no berries left but the inside was covered in the berries and I instinctively knew that they wanted me to free the bush for them to reach the berries which I did, I then got back on my bike and the two crows flew next to me until I again reached the traffic lights and then returned to the bush, it blew my mind.

[@cynicalafflictional1725]

You're an awesome person. 😊

[@freddykruger1086]

Haha i had the weirdest experience with a crow family. Coming back home from work in halifax we didnt had the right to smoke in the condos the company rented..so was always smoking outside in my car with the music blasting. The crows were basically all installing themselves about the electric pole tops around me and were just singing widly in combo with my music everytime. Was even whistling during some tunes to make em act even more weirdly in corboration to the aounds they heard. And everytime i stopped the music and got out of my car..basically to close the door they all flew away..like every weekdays. Its like they were coming to their dqily concert to enjoy it haha.

[@patriciaburns1033]

@@freddykruger1086 I love this story, the crows were seeing you as part of their group, they somehow make one feel like they are communicating with you telepathically almost, I felt like I was having an unspoken exchange with them.

[@Crisfer05]

My sister’s dog was barking at a baby crow and we don’t know if the baby went missing and they probably thought my sister’s dog had something to do with the baby gone missing or just were upset because the dog barked at the baby. So there where two crows that kept coming for months to bother the dog and would drive him crazy so my sister and her husband had to come out of the house to scare them to leave the dog alone but they didn’t stop until they got tired probably or they though they finally had had their vengeance lol

[@CIBERXGAMING]

I live by the beach and one day i was walking on the beach and i saw a crow or a raven practicing a trick. It was flying with a twig in its mouth and practicing dropping the twig from its mouth and grabbing it with its feet mid-flight. It did this multiples times sometimes dropping the twig not being successful in grabbing it with its feet, but kept retrying. My mind was blown watching this.

[@lauriepalmer3593]

I used to have an orange tabby cat that I really truly thought it was the dumbest animal I had ever met in my life until one day, he exhibited a behavior I will never forget and still impresses me to this day…25 years +3 cats later..😢😻 his name was Darius and he had this horrific high-pitched whistle of a meow, and he would meow 24 seven at the wall. He would walk around our apartment staring about 6 inches away from any solid surface and meow at it incessantly. Mind you my husband was working construction 75 hours a week at that point and was physically and emotionally exhausted.. One night Darius changed my mind about him forever. He had been staring at the wall meowing at about one in the morning and I was still up watching TV in the living room. I could hear my extremely irritated husband throw the covers off of the bed and start to roll out of bed and as he was doing that Darius knew he was coming to get scolded and I saw the cat from a room away.. freeze and look desperately left and right, left and right for a place to run too… and then he darted into the living room with me and jumped up onto his chair, climbed up on the back, curled up in a ball, and tucked his head away like he had been sound asleep all along. When my husband got in the room Darius raised his tiny little head all Blinky eyed and yawned like my husband had just woke him up…. Thus… it couldn’t possibly have been “him” meowing! I swear he would have pointed his paw at the other cat if he could’ve…..I have never seen such intelligence out of another cat to this day…😻🤯🤯

[@RisaPlays]

Cats are very intelligent and have excellent hearing. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something in the wall or outside that was bothering him.

[@colleenshaw1607]

@@RisaPlays cats acting poorly is usually due to people poorly conditioning their pets with very little enrichment to redirect their behavior towards something more appropriate like a window with a bird feeder, scratching towers and regular play times. Sometimes cats get vocal to warn us. My cat stopped a burglar last winter by causing a big fuss and giving me the heads up so i had time to grab a weapon. His grandpa would stop me from having a heart attack because he could hear when my heart rhythm was off, then lay his 16 lbs on my vagus nerve and purr until my heartbeat was regular again. This was before i was officially diagnosed with a rare heart condition which I've now had medical care for. I'm very blessed to have such good kitties

[@snaps4emma]

my cat likes to fake an eye or paw injury when she is not being properly attended to. It sucks because if she was actually injured it would be like the boy who cried wolf.

[@Ranxerox1911A1]

Ok: I’ll share a “spookily smart” story. My first dog, who my parents brought home to me when I was five, was named Tattoo. We lived in rural Ontario near Ottawa. When he wanted to go outside he would utter one bark at the front door. One night he gave the signal and I let him out. He came back a half hour later, his usual romp time, and gave the single bark “I’m home” signal. All’s well and normal. I let him in. A minute later he gave the “let me out” bark again, so I let him out. A minute after that he barked to come in. I let him in. (At this point I was 12 and he was six-ish.) This sequence repeated another time, so I got my dad. Sure enough, Tattoo wanted out again, but with dad watching, Tattoo barked several times instead of his usual demure single yap. We let him out and followed him. He got to the second electrical pole next to our quarter mile driveway and stopped, barked, and then stared at us. All was quiet except a loud thrumming sound coming from the electrical wires. Turns out that when the new poles and cables had been installed in August the workers had strung the cables too tightly so that on that really cold night in January the cables had contracted to near the breaking point. We called Ontario Hydro the next day and they cleared up the mystery as they fixed the issue. Thanks to Tattoo disaster was narrowly averted.

[@realzachfluke1]

Now that's what I call a *good boyyyy.* Good boy, Tattoo!!! That's a dope name for a dog too, I love it lol. May that special boy and his single barks live forever in your heart, my friend.

[@Ranxerox1911A1]

@@realzachfluke1 Tattoo is indeed forever in my heart. At an earlier date he defended me (when I was 8) against a rabid St. Bernard. Tattoo was about 12 pounds and the St. Bernard was approaching a hundred pounds. Tattoo fought and lost the fight but my dad broke the big dog’s back with a snow shovel. Tattoo had surgery, and lived to save us from an electrical problem a few years later. He was smart, fearless, and loyal and I dearly miss him, forty years later. Jeez. I’m getting weepy…..

[@Ranxerox1911A1]

@Larry Holiday 😂 every single year of his life. He passed at the right old age of 18.

[@tylerkrug7719]

Really interesting

[@saucy-one]

@@Ranxerox1911A1 my dog passed away last year after 13yrs. It was said he could hold conversations with anyone. One of my favorite musicians wrote a song for Vernon when he passed away. It's on another account but I can link it if you're interested.

[@sheepwars2959]

20:08 ''they can remember peoples names even after decades apart'' Chimpanzees are officially more intelligent than I am. I fail to remember peoples names minutes after they told me.

[@artdonovandesign]

I have struggled with that my whole life. As a Freeemason, it's really socially important to know guy's names, and damn if I don't always have to apologize and ask them again.

[@ManOnTheRange]

same with me :D

[@johnsshed995]

Never met an animal that's lost its keys which i do 3 or 4 times a day.. animals don't have politician's so that makes them vastly more intelligent than people..

[@sheepwars2959]

@@johnsshed995 Animals also have hierarchies in their groups. And I don't think we understand them and their language good enough to know, that they don't have idiots and greedy fcks as their leaders :D

[@shawnwales696]

Thats not a sign of low intelligence, it's a sign that the part of your brain that does that work isn't optimized. I'm the same so when I meet a new person I repeat their names several times, write the name down with some key facts about them (never seem to have any problem with that skill) and I worn them I'm likely to need to be reminded next time I see them. Seems to help quite a bit.

[@bossyspaghetti]

One time I watched a argument between a squirrel and a crow over some food on the ground. It lasted 45 minutes, and it got physical. They were both using a small tree and its branches to attack each other. It was insane. Oh yeah, and the squirrel won after the crow gave up in obvious (and loud) frustration.

[@icarusbinns3156]

We accidentally trained our cats to hunt for spiders when they hear ‘murder’. Our one sweet girl will chirp at the front door around nine-thirty, when I usually get home from work. One night, the bus didn’t get me home until almost one. She’d been chirping, getting steadily more distressed, until I opened the door. And had to quickly catch this now-purring cat. I love her. She’s such a good kitty.

[@TheLunarPierce]

"empathy is a sign of intelligence"..... This explains a lot of social media

[@rogerstarkey5390]

You mean "antisocial media"?

[@antdenzic7977]

Well said. Totally agree!!!

[@deltadesign5697]

Absolutely! Well said brother!

[@pfisherking]

Underrated comment.

[@TheLunarPierce]

@Vince Valdez not if one recognizes the irony in the comment. 😉

[@HylanderSB]

Crows also know about trade. There’s a girl in Seattle that fed crows and they started bringing things in return. Stuff like bottle caps and such.

[@freshoutofcrabs]

They clearly knew that the post-apocalypse was soon and that the girl would need plenty of bottle caps as currency.

[@onlyonewhyphy]

They obviously know nothing about trade. A fish! A cow! Then we'll talk, Crow!

[@hawkdsl]

Yes, this is the biggest thing about crows.. they bring gifts if your cool to them. Somewhere on the tube a guy shows some of the gifts they brought 'em.. lots of shiny things.. even rings.

[@aaronlittle5478]

I saw an experiment where crows were taught to recycle, exchanging bottle caps for treats.

[@CaptTambo]

@@freshoutofcrabs Nuka Cola bottle caps

[@belindahughes2610]

I kept goats for many years. I kept them within an electric fence in the fields to safe guard the trees and hedges . I used a Battery powered unit. I then began to find goats "out " of their enclosure. So after putting them back in I discovered on one occasion I had not put the fencer on, so there was no "tick tick "of the pulsing from the unit, So I put it back on , and hid, they went up to the box and listened , when they heard the ticking noise they walked away. Another day I deliberately left it off , and yes they went upto the unit, listened , no noise so they pushed there way through . Pretty smart !!

[@jasondrummond9451]

My uncle kept his cows penned by electric fencing - the way the cows tested if the power was on or not, was by bunting one of the low status cows into the wire. If she broke through - then the high status members could follow without getting shocked.

[@insomniapetals4424]

When I lived in Alaska I got real familiar with how intelligent ravens are. There were a few who hung around my place that I would feed and talk to. They became more and more frequent visitors and eventually started warning me when people approached my front door and once returned a ring I lost in the snow. I just came out my door in the morning to feed them and have a chat and one of them landed on the railing next to me, let me scratch his neck, then he put the ring down on the railing and jumped off. I had been looking for the damn thing all night, though I thought I'd lost it down the sink while doing dishes. They got extra treats that day! I can also attest to the fact that they hold grudges. A delivery guy once kicked at one of them and after that they would scold him and dive bomb him every time he approached.

[@scootermom1791]

I've heard a lot of stories like yours about Ravens and crows. They are incredibly intelligent and so willing to help the people who help them. Dolphins are that way, too. I met someone who'd lived in Alaska for awhile. She said people had to be vigilant with their young children when the kids were outdoors playing. Not only was there a risk of bears, wolves or whatever, but Eagles and other large birds of prey would sometimes try to pick up toddlers as if the babies were a food source. 😲 Is that true?

[@insomniapetals4424]

@scootermom1791 I never heard of eagles or other raptors trying to take children, but I've heard stories of them taking smaller pets, cats, small dogs, etc. I used to be a pre-school teacher, and the only animal we ever had a code and plan for was moose. Especially in the winter when the snow was piled high against the fences surrounding our play areas. They could just walk right over them. Mama moose get real angry when they think their babies might be in danger. Plus, unlike bears or eagles, moose were EVERYWHERE. In the city, in the country, in the suburbs... just moseying down the sidewalk or the highway or eating your hard fought for tulips! Yeah, moose were the bigger, more common threat. Lol

[@scootermom1791]

@@insomniapetals4424 Moose could walk over snow piled as high as fences? Wow! I have only seen mooses at Yellowstone and, thankfully, from a distance. I didn't realize they were tall enough to walk over fences. That same lady who lived in Alaska did mention you also had to be very careful with letting pets be outdoors for the same reason (raptors taking them). Maybe she was exaggerating about the birds trying to take babies.

[@insomniapetals4424]

@scootermom1791 A lot of people repeat rumors, just like everywhere. It's possible it did happen. I moved away 20 years ago. Anything is possible. And yes... Full grown moose are bigger than on the TV. Like, a reasonably tall man's head would only reach the top of their shoulder, quite a bit of it is legs. Also, the fences at two of the day cares I worked at were only about 4 feet tall without snow drifted or plowed up against it. I'm sure it's not so much of a problem now, considering that global warming has warmed it there quite a bit. They don't get nearly as much snow as they used to. It is what it is.

[@scootermom1791]

@@insomniapetals4424 Yikes! The moose you described are gigantic! My daughter and I once saw the tallest horse in the world (Goliath) many, many years ago. His owner was probably around 6 ft. tall, and his head reached Goliath's shoulders. I imagine moose must be around Goliath's height. It would be scary enough as an adult to encounter one of them just walking down the street. I can't imagine how frightening it would be for a preschooler. I bet children there grow up learning to have a greater respect for nature than most people do nowadays.

[@churchofchris]

Thank you for mentioning rats- no one believes me when I talk about how complex their social structures are, how there have been studies that suggest that their vocalizations are complex enough that they could be considered a language (they're constantly squeaking in frequencies we can't hear). Rats have been taught to drive little cars. Rats have been taught to understand money. Rats can do basic math, which I've seen myself with casual experiments with piles of treats. They have multiple hiding places for food storage, which we refer to as a "diverse asset portfolio". They recognize different people and behave differently based on prior interactions, including displays of interspecies empathy. It's not just mazes, they're ridiculously smart and the coolest animals I've ever worked with.

[@taylorbug9]

*All of this*

[@abbycross90210]

We had three rats, brothers, who were the sweetest animals ever. Rats get such a bad rap, but they are the best of the rodent family I think.

[@darkkit1994]

@@abbycross90210 In my psychology class we got rats to train. I ended up interacting over an extended period of time with three of them, and they were super sweet. I was passing the class by a good margin so rather than try and train my rat too hard I spent most of my time hanging out with her. She was a sweet gal who loved hanging out on my shoulders. One of the others kept trying to clean my face. So sweet.

[@friendlyone2706]

My daughter had a pet rat (NOT my idea!). I was shocked how "dog like" its personality was.

[@churchofchris]

@@friendlyone2706 should've had two, keeping them alone is cruel. They're like six bucks, there's really no excuse.

[@seantwombly467]

I've been raising goats for years and have a bunch of stories. We call them 'raptor' smart, specifically because they go around and test the fences systematically, looking for weaknesses. And when they find one, they exploit it but will try not to do so in front of the hoomans. Out first two goats were especially good at escaping before we got smarter about it. One had horns and the other did not, so the horned one would lift the fence for the hornless one to slip out, then follow it. They also liked to buck each other but the hornless one (called 'polled') would get his scalp split by the other's horns. One day I saw it walking around with their water bucket on its head so I ran out and got the bucket off, refilled it, and went back in the house. I watched from the window as the same goat walked up to the bucket, tipped it over, flipped it onto it's head, and then ran at his horned friend. He wore the bucket like a helmet so he could buck with impunity. That's more than using tools. That's making armor. Absolutely crazy.

[@shelbyb9965]

Wow, that's crazy! The level of intelligence to use armor is not something I'd have expected from goats. But then to be fair, I've not spent a lot of time around goats and didn't know they were so smart Great story, thanks so much for sharing! And give your goats some pats for me 🤗

[@redacted178]

Okay, now that is far more smarter than what I thought about goats. I mean I knew they were smart but damn did this just flip my knowledge.

[@alexia3552]

that's wildddd what the heck

[@thatguy_5240]

That is nearly as hilarious as it is incredible

[@Pelletajuton1]

My parents had some sheep when i was young, and they did the fence thing too! First the fence wasn't electric, so they just rammed it to get the grass that was 1.2% better looking, but then my dad got sick of that and got an electric fence. Not long after, the matriarch of the flock realized that if the fence went over a tuft of grass, she could squeeze her head under it without getting shocked, then lifted up the fence with the thick ..fur? on her neck to let the others out, then walked out herself 😅

[@TrashParty]

Oh he knows he can walk around. He just wants you to open the door :p he's been pranking you for 12 years

[@KlausJepps]

Smartest dog of them all, and his human doesn't even know

[@annemariebuckley4551]

So funny....and probably true! 🤣🤣

[@ctakitimu]

Right? Or he's thinking, "I love my human but he's not too bright, doesn't he know I could walk round if I wanted to come in?"

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

Doubtful, because Joe most likely tried to tell the dog that many times before finally giving up and just letting him through.

[@JessJ2011]

My dog absolutely hates loud noises, specially the fire alarm at my old condo - we moved in when the building was relatively new and fire alarm system had a lot of issues and went off all the time. He always would freak out and hide under the table when the alarm would go off. It happened so many times, I used to just put on my noise cancelling headphones and try to ignore it. About a year into living there, he started randomly barking at the door at around 4am. I thought he had to go out so I put him on the leash and walked out into the hall. He started barking even louder in the hallway, then refused to get on the elevator, actually pulled me on the leash towards the stairwell. Around half way down the stairs (we were in the 15th floor), the alarm started. I expected him to freeze and start wining, but he didn’t - he completely ignored it, kept pulling me down the stairs. We finally got outside which was when I finally saw the outside of the building, and a huge fire on the balcony of the 20th floor (someone had an illegal propane heater on the balcony that caught fire). He must have literally smelled the fire the second it started - and knew he had to get me outside as soon as possible, and he somehow knew not to trust the elevator (the unit that caught fire was right next to the elevators) - I still don’t really get how he knew that.

[@sirridesalot6652]

Late reply but for people's safety I'll comment. NEVER use an elevator when there's a fire! They act like a chimney and draw the smoke. You can easily suffocate in an elevator. Plus that's not to mention the danger of being trapped in one if the power goes out.

[@anandsharma7430]

Your dog probably chose the safe direct walking route as it was a matter of life and death, rather than the confusing moving floor magic machine which he never understood.

[@jaromchristensen5598]

7:45 “predicting what you’re gonna need for the future and taking the actions now, planning for what you’re going to have to do later”. So basically that octopus is more intelligent than me

[@capsizetwice]

The poor octopus only has about 2 years to live, so it has to plan much more carefully than we do. An unplanned and squandered minute is a bigger percentage of an octopus's life than it is for us.

[@VeganV5912]

@@capsizetwice .. you hurt innocent animals or are you vegan ??? Yes or no question.

[@rachaelbrugmans4309]

@@VeganV5912 sigh. Theres always one. Always one person who tries to drag a nice conversation towards their cause for their own reasons, convinced they are right and people NEED to listen! ....no, no we don't. Im not against veganism. Im against pushy people. I will always deliberately do the opposite of what they want (within reason) sheerly to demonstrate that pushiness gets you nowhere. I dont reward bad behaviour by giving it even more of a platform. So, entirely thanks to your attitude today, you have now alienated me from trying veganism for at least another decade. This is what you can expect. People dont like being yelled at and told what to do. If you cant appreciate that, you are destined to fail, by your own hand. Dont blame anyone else when you alienate people with your attitude WELL before they have a chance to consider the actual content of your words. Stop shooting yourselves in the face here, you're achieving the opposite of your goal. Thats the point at which smart people (AND animals!) adjust their approach. Might be an idea if you truly wish to actually sway someones opinion to your cause. I cant believe I have to explain this stuff sometimes.

[@paintedwings74]

"Humans aren't self-aware because when you add an odd smell to their skin, they don't sniff it." ~~Dogs, performing a self-awareness test according to dog senses

[@ortherner]

LMAO

[@sberryscake]

because it might be chloroform 🤷‍♀️

[@101wormwood]

when I get an odd smell on my skin I cant stop sniffing it. sticky or stinky

[@NickRoman]

@@101wormwood , well you just have a high DIQ (dog intelligence quotient)

[@siyacer]

@@NickRoman hehe diq

[@matthewmccarter3284]

We have an Amazon parrot that we raised from 3 weeks old. She's 11 now and uses words in context all the time. She also combines phrases in ways she was never taught.

[@SerPapus]

That’s actually pretty cool. Do you guys keep it in a cage always? How does it work? I want one

[@GreenIsTheWayForward]

Yeah I'm also curious! And can you give some examples of her language use?

[@Zarion13]

@@SerPapus I have a six year old African Grey Parrot. He spends most of his time on top of his cage or in my shoulder. Keeping them caged is absolutely animal abuse, they have the intellect of a toddler. For example, my parrot sings and dances to amuse himself, he laughs when he is having fun, and he is very demanding of attention. Getting an African Grey Parrot is a lifelong commitment and basically the same as having a child in my opinion, a child the will be a toddler their whole life.

[@Zarion13]

@@GreenIsTheWayForward I have a six year old African Grey Parrot. He spends most of his time on top of his cage or in my shoulder. Keeping them caged is absolutely animal abuse, they have the intellect of a toddler. For example, my parrot sings and dances to amuse himself, he laughs when he is having fun, and he is very demanding of attention. Getting an African Grey Parrot is a lifelong commitment and basically the same as having a child in my opinion, a child the will be a toddler their whole life.

[@SerPapus]

@@Zarion13 I see, yeah. I Would never cage an animal. My aunt try to put her dog in the cage lol I felt so bad so I took it out and I was like nah

[@clydebarker6355]

Had a pair of cats. These 2 were brothers but more importantly partners in crime. We were in the kitchen and my roommate was cooking some sausage links on the griddle as i sat across the room at the table drinking coffee. Multiple times these two heathens would jump up on the counter and try and get close to the food. They were kittens so we just thought they were being young and bad. Moments later one of the cats came up to the feet of my roommate and was begging for attention...rolling around all cute like, meowing to get attention and rubbing on his legs. Within seconds of him turning around to show affection to the uncontrollably cute kitten, his brother hopped on the counter, snagged a sausage and made a break for it. As soon as the thief had safely secured his prize the other cat immediately stopped the affection and trotted off to join his brother in the spoils. We had no choice but to let them have it at that point. This story has always stuck with me and to this day we know that we were bested in a game of wits by those two kittens.

[@mook_butt8037]

“He’s an idiot. But he’s *my* idiot.” I had a Golden who I felt the exact same way about. She was a 100lb chonker who didn’t have two brain cells to smack together, but I loved her to pieces.

[@thesecondslit1710]

Golden are irresistible. Same here, I had one so stupid and lovely. Miss that bitch !

[@robertabarnhart6240]

My sister once had a Dalmatian who was deaf and dumb. Deaf cos he couldn't hear, and dumb cos he was endearingly stupid.

[@jaykris9719]

Dolphin facts : Dolphins are more curious around pregnant women as they can see the baby with their visual echo location. Also Dolphins have gang bangs.

[@pfoster1666]

Years ago I saw a PBS special hosted by Robin Williams that showed that dolphins can recognize and identify complex shapes with their echo-location. And yes, dolphins are the horndogs of the sea.

[@ellenevans1884]

They also suck the ink out of squids to get high and pass it around like some kind of spliff

[@zoranmarlievski7921]

@@ellenevans1884 its pufferfish ur talking about not squids but yea. Also the poison from those pufferfish would most likely kill dolphins so its probably not even true lol

[@xHarpyx]

This just blew my mind. I mean, I knew about the gang bangs... But... SEEING the unborn!? Holy shit

[@carso1500]

@@zoranmarlievski7921 it has been recorded so it is true, take into account that Dolphins are much bigger than humans so the poison wouldnt affect them the same way it affects us (it's like how spices are toxins created by plants to kill insects and we find them delicious because we are too big to be affected by them)

[@greggswanson58]

I spent a day with elephants when I visited Thailand. The juvenile male would charge at people, making them scatter. Then he would stop and swing his trunk, looking very pleased with himself.

[@fatalshore5068]

@@Axiomatic75 I had a simliar experience when I visited Thailand (beautiful country btw). I was riding one elephant (the female) and my brother was on the other one behind me (the male), and when we crossed the river the male started spraying his mate with water and trumpeting playfully. Was the most adorable thing and reminded me very much of human males doing stupid things to impress women haha.

[@posadist681]

@@fatalshore5068 i am so jealous of ur experience! hope i can witness something like that one day

[@erikaarnold4780]

I had a pit bull named Remo. I literally found him running down the center lane of a busy street. He was maybe 15 months old and we lived in a 2 bedroom condo with my roommate, Big Jay. He was on a crazy diet at the time and would boil eggs a dozen at a time every freaking day! One day, he was running late for class and forgot that there was a huge pot of eggs still boiling on the stove! My God…you can guess what happened….after all the water had boiled out, the eggs started to burn…then they began exploding all over the stove, floor and ceiling….what was left in the pot continued burning, flooding the condo with thick, white smoke. Poor Remo was there, trapped in that smoke, doors and windows locked. Luckily, I had come home from work early because I broke a heel on my shoe. The fire department had just showed up…I sprinted up the stairs, fearing the worst, screaming to the firemen that my baby was in there… I opened the door and frantically searched through the smoke that was so thick, you could almost slice it like cake. Five seconds inside and I was already coughing. I swear my heart just sank. I was just praying it wasn’t too late…Finally, I made my way to Big Jay’s side of the house and into his bathroom. That was where I found Remo…in the shower…with his nose to the drain. My genius dog knew he could get fresh air from the drain in the shower. It saved his life. My head almost exploded. 🤯

[@casspapa7484]

Remo is extraordinary. Pitbulls are amazing dogs. I rescued one from a shelter.

[@2listening1]

I really do think pit bulls seem to be a really smart bunch.

[@joshshultz1250]

Ummm... shower drains should have a trap on them

[@Nehmo]

As @joshshultz1250 pointed out, drains are blocked by the water in the trap. You can't get much air from the drain.

[@Numbabu]

@@NehmoI guess the assumption is that there was slightly more there than elsewhere, and the dog could detect this

[@danielsass1826]

There's also an awesome story of this girl and her mom who feed crows. The crows bring them trinkets but also the mom was out one day miles from home and dropped a lense cover for her camera. She didn't notice but when she got home sure enough the lens was left on the bird bath where they always leave there gifts. Also a gray parrot solved a murder

[@CleoHarperReturns]

"Also a gray parrot solved a murder." You can't just throw that out there without a story!! More words please!!

[@WolfRamAndHart]

@@CleoHarperReturns Was it a murder...of crows? (Love corvids)

[@mehere8038]

@@CleoHarperReturns I'm guessing that was probably the horrible story where the relative had been the one responsible for the murder & he had also murdered the dog, so that the dog couldn't identify him, then while the police were there investigating, with no leads at all, he came into the house & the parrot went nuts at him, alerting everyone that he was the one responsible. With that lead to work on, the police were then able to prove that person was the muderer. It was over money or something, I can't remember the details now, but the parrot was really traumatised by having watched his beloved owner murdered & later on would still cry & react with obvious grief when it saw pictures of the owner it loved. I think it was in India or somewhere, again, I can't remember the exact details, a nephew or someone & female murder victim. Her husband & family said they were going to keep & care for her parrot & treat it well, but parrots are so smart that they never recover emotionally from events like that :(

[@CleoHarperReturns]

@@mehere8038 Pretty similar story, but this one was actually in some small town in Michigan. I heard it on the Small Town Murders podcast (but I can't remember the name of the guys who produce it. But yeah birds are hella smart. Many animals are. Deer have an emotional IQ that rivals humans -- which is horribly sad. I grew up in the woods (well half and half anyway) and I have nothing against people providing for their families but I wish there was a law that said if you don't live there, you can't hunt there, because it's 99% of the time the horrific things that tourist hunters do that put people off. Saying that, knowing what I do about the intelligence of animals I don't think I'll be hunting when I move back (again). Unless, you know -- zombies. 😉

[@CleoHarperReturns]

@@mehere8038 Sorry -- for clarity: since I commented here, I've heard a story of a parrot starting a murder and talked about it elsewhere, so I thought I was replying to THAT comment. Sorry for the confusion!

[@yaelfeldman6965]

My dog once ran torwards my glass door, not realizing it's there, and hit it. I once ran torwards my glass door, not realizing it's there, and hit it. My dog is as smart as a human!

[@cannibalbananas]

I watched a friend and her pomeranian do this together when I was a teen. Funniest thing ever 😂😂😂

[@GrayBlood1331]

or....

[@jilllazina4376]

I have horses and had goats in the past(sadly the goats have all since passed away)…one day the goats came back to the house & were calling (bleating) to get my attention…this was very unusual as the goats always stayed with the horses…(unless they came in the house for Cheerios, lol)…I decided to go over to the goats and they immediately turned when they saw me following…i followed them up into a back pasture where we had recently fenced in a new area…one of the horses had gotten on the other side of the fence & was running back and forth trying to get back in …the goats had come to get me to help…goats are very smart and very cool!

[@lindaashbrook6789]

Lovely story, thank you for sharing it.

[@differentdestiny]

I had a rabbit who's temporary cage was a large dog kennel with vertical bars. Rabbits are quite fussy about the neatness of their home and will clean and move toys to a chosen pile. We put this wicker ring into her cage and she immediately came over, stared at the toy for about 2seconds, looked up, back at the toy, back at the bars, back to the toy, about 5 times before picking up the ring turning her head sideways and shoving it outside her cage. It surprised to me to watch a little critter seemingly problem solve and do some simple measurements. Rabbits are surprisingly smart, basically the same level of intelligence of a dog.

[@Astrodevil]

I was watching two earwigs in a spider's web in my yard. One got free and began descending the rose bush they were on. However, it doubled back, went to the other earwig before the spider could get to it, and chewed through the webbing. Both earwigs managed to escape. VERY glad someone else was with me to witness that.

[@friendlyone2706]

Knowing earwigs are smart is not endearing, it's scary.

[@sapphiresupernova]

That's cool but gross, earwigs are nasty

[@bonmotze]

@@sapphiresupernova why? They aren't harmful at all and only bite humans in defensive situation. Their bite isn't harmful nor painful.

[@paulathompson1332]

@@bonmotze I haven't been pinched by an earwig but my family members that have been assure me it is quite painful.

[@bonmotze]

@@paulathompson1332 "An earwig pinch site might become red and swollen. In most cases, the discomfort is mild and passes quickly."

[@ThePieFairy91]

My years working with dogs taught me that there is no such thing as a stupid dog, only humans who have been trained by their dog.

[@hunterflowerson4460]

nah some are mad dumb

[@PaperMakersAdeludedbroad]

I've put the dumb ones down. Only the strong survive...

[@mndlessdrwer]

Some dogs really are just dumb, but they're still lovable, and that's all that really matters to humans. We can pack-bond to inanimate objects, so having a slightly stupid dog or cat certainly isn't an impediment to us bonding with them.

[@todddavidson1332]

my shih tzu would escape and lie down in the middle of the cul de sac

[@j.p.animates7]

This is going to sound like a crazy made up story but I swear this happened Once when I was younger, there was this stray cat that gave birth near my grand-parents' house, in the egress of a basement window. Since my siblings and I were pretty young, we would often open the window to pet the kittens, but eventually the mother got annoyed and moved her babies to somewhere else, so we had no idea where they were, but since the mother was still staying in the area we figured they had to be close. So one day I was just outside in the backyard when I saw the mom (my grand-parents always said she was feral and that we should stay away, but being a cat lover I just couldn't help always trying to be nice to her) and I just straight up asked her something like "where did you put your babies?", not really expecting an answer, and she started meowing and walking slowly, looking back at me like she wanted me to follow her. So I did and she led me to the shed. The shed was built really close to the house, so there was a little space between the two buildings, but it wasn't large enough for a person to get in the gap. Turns out, that's where she had hidden the kittens, but since there was I lot of junk just randomly thrown in the gap she wasn't able to get them out by herself. So one by one she started bringing them close enough so that I could grab them with one hand and get them safely out of the gap. I was probably around 15 years old at the time but I'm never going to forget that moment

[@robertterrell3065]

Good story!

[@tayengn6884]

I believe your

[@hala8660]

“Excuse me, can i borrow your human hands for a moment?”

[@cleobinx]

That doesn’t seem far fetched at all. Animals can instantly feel a person “aura” or w/e you want to call it. She knew you were a safe person to ask. She may not have understood your exact words but she could feel your intent . I work with cats and dogs everyday and they are extremely emotionally intelligent, much more then humans I believe . They don’t have same kind of intelligence we have , but they have us beat in certain areas

[@TheCatWitch63]

I believe you, and I also think cats can be very smart and even devious. Two stories: 1) my mom had three Siamese cats, two females and one male. One of the females kept mating with other cats instead of her designated “husband”. My mom was going on a trip while Mía (the cat) was very pregnant, so she told the cat that she expected the kittens to be Siamese this time. Mía gave birth while my mom was away and the kittens, obviously, we’re not Siamese. It was the middle of the rainy season; Mía kept dragging her babies to the garden, where my older brother would rescue them and dry them off. When my mom returned from her trip, Mía stole a kitten from Liu (the other Siamese female) and placed it at my mom’s feet, making her believe that the stolen kitten was her own. 2) I had a huge orange cat when I was very little, but he was mine in name only. The truth is that he loved my father and older brother more than anyone else. One day, my mom got angry at my brother for some reason and I think she even spanked him. He was very upset, looked at my cat and told him to scratch her. The cat immediately went after my mom and scratched her legs very badly. I have plenty of stories like that.

[@anna9072]

When I first moved out into my first apartment, I got a couple of Manx kittens. One of these, Ginger, was scary smart. The two of them liked to supervise while I was in the bathtub, but sometimes wanted go go in and out rather than sitting through the whole performance. One evening they had been particularly active, and I got tired of getting out of the tub to open the door. At this point Ginger was in the bathroom, and decided she wanted out. I stayed put. When a few vocal demands were ignored, she started jumping up and swatting at the sash of my robe hanging on the door. I told her to stop it. She looked at me, jumped and swatted again, then sat and looked at me again as in “so what are you going to do about it?” I wadded up my washcloth and put it on the edge of the bathtub and said “you do that again and you’re getting hit with a wet washcloth.” I should mention that I had never done this, or even threatened to do this, before. She bounced over to the tub, hooked the washcloth and tossed it across the room, then went and lay down on it. And went to sleep. It might have been coincidental, but it really didn’t feel like it.

[@roswellxo9214]

I love how joe got so giddy at the idea of hundreds of cursing parrots for him to visit in a single place.

[@bloodandempire]

Our little parrot, Kyoru will put his head down to receive head kisses. If you give him too many head kisses, he screams “NO” in your face 😂😂😂

[@rsrollins72]

I would say my cats are the smartest animals ever. They actually managed to train multiple humans to take care of there every need in exchange for nothing.

[@RJCHOICE]

Just shows how dumb and wasteful we've become. At one time Cats were at least expected to reduce the spread of vermin such as rats and mice to protect our food and health. We seem to evolve a need for some animals as much as they evolve a need for us. Cats are still less needy than us or dogs so far.

[@RJCHOICE]

@PhonieZGaminZ Sounds more like my "symbiotic" relationship with the racoons who raid my garbage. I feed them unintentionally and they "unintentionally" raise my blood pressure on trash day. lol

[@RJCHOICE]

@@VeganV5912 Cool thanks.

[@grantlauzon5237]

Then Babies are even smarter than adults.

[@derreckwalls7508]

I was going to say the same thing. Cat have spent thousands of years domesticating humans to serve their every need and make the humans feel privileged to do it. Cats rule.

[@DrachenGothik666]

I worked at an aviary that bred exotic birds and we had an African Grey who would mimic the phone ringing, then call out, "Alex! Phone!". The staff all knew about this trick of his. Here's the smart part: when the phone actually **did** ring, the bird would call for Alex of Dennis (the other owner) to answer the phone. That bird knew **context** and used it to call staff members to the phone when it rang. Another fun one, this time from a wild Raven: I was waiting at a bus stop one winter and noticed a Raven poking at the snow in the gutters of the building across the street. He would stop periodically to caw and flap his wings, looking for all the world like he was swearing and having a temper tantrum because he couldn't find whatever it was he'd stashed in the gutter. He eventually found what he was looking for and his vocalizations changed to more excited as he stood on his prize, then pecked it apart and ate it. The other people standing at the bus stop with me didn't notice his behaviour until I started laughing. When I explained what I thought I'd seen, they laughed, too. :-)

[@Dimension640]

When I was a kid my parents found a young crow. He wasn't old enough to fly, so we fed him until he became and adult. My father even built a big tall cage for him to safely practice flying without fear of the cats. After a while we freed him, he joined some other crows that there were in the neighborhood, yet he didn't forget us. My father would call him and he would come to eat the treats we had for him. Smartest per ever

[@robadr13]

I freed a crow once in my back yard, who had got one of his legs stuck between the slats of a wooden chair. I'd seen him struggling and went out to look. When I saw the situation I went back to the house to get gloves, a towel (to put over him), and a small pry bar to pry the slats further apart so he could free his leg. There were multiple crows on the power lines around the yard making quite a racket, but they let let me free him without interference (as opposed to dive bombing me) when they saw I was acting in a non-threatening manner. Since then I've made a point of acknowledging individual crows in the back yard. I like to think they recognize me.

[@bryku]

Yeah, crows are always full of surprises. The apartment I lived at had trash day, basically the day they take the trash away, so the night before everyone would empty their trash into the giant bin outside. The crows would come like it was a restaurant reservation... even signal weak. After catching up on this, I noticed that the group of crows would be at the apartment building next to might the next day, so I asked if their trash day was that day... which it was. So I got fully into this and actually check it out every day after work... This group of crows would go from apartment to apartment each day on their trash day. Basically going out to eat every day in this same rotating cycle in about a 2-3 block radius. I could understand eating from the trash, but this was so perfect time, exactly on the day right after people got off work and took the trash out they would be there. I was just surprised, I ended up researching a lot about crows because it blew my mind.

[@dwcheshire]

"If you judge a fish by how well it can climb a tree you will spend your whole life believing that fish are stupid."

[@taowang9735]

hi grandpa, some fish do climb trees. watch this, kzbin.info/www/bejne/gn-mioZ5fc6jrNk

[@VaxzaLimeIsCool]

Yo grandpa you have my ligma?

[@jjlortez]

Hmmm I like your subscription list.

[@luizucchetto2528]

Was this an Einstein quote?

[@charliebravo3936]

You’ve got a dumb dog, haven’t you Don?

[@The0rbiter]

My family had a dog when I was like 9 years old. Everytime she wanted to go outside, she would just sit in front of the main door and we would get the message. But once I was home alone and probably watching something really captivating on TV. I remember that she was whining near the door. After me not paying her any attention she came to me, looked at me, barked and runned to the door. But the Smurfs or whatever my 9yo ass was watching were more important. So she suddenly appeared with her collar, that she would get put on every time we went to walk her, in her mouth and put it in front of me on the floor. Then she looked at me and just stared. I like to think that at that point she must have thought I was the dumb one.

[@jamesklinckman2363]

I once saved a very young raven trapped in a cage,it’s mother was nearby in the tree yelling at me to save him.The next day and many days she would come back to the tree next to me thank me and was friendly like no others.Birds been around since the dinosaurs and are amazing.

[@kykk3365]

I trained a family of fruit flies to indicate when it was time to take out the trash.

[@destrygriffith3972]

hahahahahaha....

[@hunterflowerson4460]

Mannn those things had me so fucked up last year I had to cover cups and food and defend that stuff with my life every day

[@colemarie9262]

I love this comment.

[@cherryjam447]

I need a more detailed explanation on this, this sounds awesome

[@koukouland]

😂😂😂

[@Mythki11er]

Crows hold funerals. You can't just say that and not elaborate

[@gcisbani]

Here you have kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXyYl2WMaKxsnK8

[@hornbeam7131]

Do they not eat carrion? They all sadly gather round eating their comrade murmuring "It's the way he would have wanted it"

[@dasanoneia4730]

Barely anyone mentions it but they also mimic speech eerily good

[@annastinehammersdottir1290]

They gather in their dozens; flying about, cawing loudly, swooping to the fallen one, circling in group patterns. It's hard to ignore and quite touching - lasts up to an hour.

[@voodoochile4147]

@@annastinehammersdottir1290 this happened in front of my house once. It’s so loud. I thought something must be seriously wrong. Went outside to look and spotted the dead crow in the road from the driveway. I remembered that crows mourn their dead, but it really looked more like a party than a funeral. I was fascinated. The “celebration” lasted for hours.

[@LilliBellentor]

I used to have pet rats. I always loved when the really smart ones figured out that they can push up the little ball at the end of the drinking bottle with their paws to get little droplets of water. They used them to clean them selves or drink from their paws. Looked like the most civilized little critters.

[@violetelin1901]

We had a pet rat that would "watch" movies with us from the back of the couch. He'd tap on a shoulder for a piece of popcorn, but if it didn't have enough butter to suit him he'd throw it across us to the floor and tap again. Obviously, with their already short lifespans, we tried to limit his butter.

[@BaptisteLegrand]

Love rats, they are so smart and nice. It's only heartbreaking their livespan is so short.

[@Iggyhaxor]

My dad told me a story about growing up there was a crow in his neighborhood that would catch garden snakes and apparently intentionally drop them on women passing underneath lmao

[@sydneyjosifek7488]

Last week when I was laying awake in bed from a lovely chronic pain flare up my kitty, who’ve I had for over ten years now, realized I was awake despite the door to my room being shut and me making no noise, and subsequently went and annoyed my parents by jumping on them and meowing until they woke up because she wanted me to have company. I love my cat.

[@InquisitorThomas]

Yes I would be disappointed if my dog didn’t get into a good college.

[@ilarious5729]

I'm sure it can still ace Trump university.

[@fatdad64able]

My dog is so dumb, it's unbelievable. Whenever we play poker and he has a good hand, he starts wagging his tail.

[@jeffk464]

I have a border Collie Aussie mix and I would definitely love her less if she was dumb, but she's pretty damn smart. I'm going to get a well bred pure Border Collie next because being able to train very smart dogs is pretty damn satisfying. Some dogs you can just see a spark of intelligence in their eyes, its really cool, and why practically every dog in commercials is a Border Collie.

[@jakemckee2005]

@@jeffk464 I have a lab and border collie mix. She’s pretty smart, she can really recognize people and objects. And she hates our Roomba so whenever we ask our Echo to start it, she can recognize what the Echo says so she runs into the bathroom, where the Roomba has an invisible border because the bathroom’s floor is a bit lower so if it goes in, it can’t go out. By the way, I wouldn’t get a pure bred dog. They can be smart, yes, but they also carry genetic diseases and don’t live as long. And sometimes they aren’t as smart as they would be if they weren’t pure breeds just because of how inbred they really are. To be honest, I would prefer a dumb mutt that would live twice as long, than a really smart pure bred that would suffer from genetic issues all its life. Just giving you advice, glad your dog is really smart.

[@imdawolfman2698]

@@ilarious5729 Trump university wasn't fit for humans, let alone dogs. Maybe if Trump had had a dog when he was young he could have taught him to be human! It would have had to be an exceptional dog. But then, tiny Trump probably would have set it on fire, sorry, bad idea.

[@YourSoulDriver]

When my Poodle Toy misbehaved, we put it in "Time Out" in a small room with a glass sliding door, for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the "offense". After a while, it was able to punish itself, after realizing it had committed a bad action, by opening the door with its snout, go to the room, close the door, wait there and then come back, by opening and closing the door after it thought it had been there long enough.

[@SinginHigh]

That a Poodle for you. They figure things out, observe the behavior around them and understand consequences.

[@funnyteacherman]

My mom had a poodle when she was a kid and he apparently did the same thing - he'd put himself in time-out whenever he was naughty.

[@thesecondslit1710]

Pavlov would be so fuckin' proud !

[@RTSOB1]

Tallulah Bankhead used to tell the story of a pet monkey her family kept in the house when she was a child. They had a hell of a time house breaking it and, whenever it made a smelly present, her father would open a window, pick the monkey up, spank it on it's ass and throw it out the window. Finally, she said, they got it perfectly trained. From then on it would still crap in the house, but then it would open the window, jump up on the sill, smack itself on the ass and jump out.

[@sandman0123]

Ha-ha, @D.A. Vader, great story! We used to have two dogs. Sometimes one of them would do something bad while we were away but of course, often I had no way of knowing which one. When I scolded them, pointing at the source of my complaint (like something chewed apart or a poo...), one would just look at me with tails wagging with expression of innocence, while the other would pull in tails and ears and try to slink away, looking hellishly guilty. Culprit identified! On a few occasion we could verify that in fact their behaviour was actually reflecting their guilt or otherwise. "Dog experts" may be saying that unless you catch a dog in the act doing the wrong thing, there is no point scolding them becuase they don't understand why you are angry with them. Not true, in my experience! Perhaps their memory fades after a while but they can put one and two together very well, especially if it's about something they know they are not allowed to do. Of course, on other occasions, they could be a bit crafty, too! :-)

[@Jayk129]

My best friends dad got really mad when my friend and I taught his parrot to say “He touches me when no ones around.” Apparently it made family gatherings incredibly awkward and hysterically funny for years.

[@jasonhalopoff2130]

that is hilarious. i hope its true.

[@kabubagachugu7729]

😂😂😂

[@JEBavido]

I tried to teach my quaker parrot to say, "Help! I've been turned into a parrot!" , but he was uninterested in the joke and taught me to say, "Hey there, darling boy!" in adoring tones whenever I saw him.

[@ladykoiwolfe]

The poodle cut is actually designed to provide warmth for the joints and chest. They are hunting dogs by design, and this means sometimes jumping into cold water. No one needs a chill in their joints. Edit: made it to the end. I was expecting Ravens, all the abilities of crows and they can learn to talk. A tale of a smart kitty. My cat was about a year old when I learned he had figured out that if the alarm didn't go off I didn't go to school. He then learned how to turn of the alarm by sliding the switch to the off position. I only found out he was doing this because one night he step over my face as he reached for the alarm, which woke me up. I saw where his paw was. Then I checked the alarm. It was off. I reset it to on. Later in our life I had a laser pointer and three cats. My aunt lived with us and she owned a fourth cat. Of the the four my boy was the only one who never chased the pointer. I was teasing him with it one day and he just looked at the spot then looked at me. He then walked up to me and put his paw over the end of the pointer and looked up at me, his face very clearly saying, 'caught it'.

[@Leoamaze]

This needs more likes.

[@AquilaCat]

My cat quickly learned where the light of the laser pointer came from, but chases it anyway. When she wants to play with it she will bring the pointer to me and meow until I play with her. She knows and still thinks it's fun

[@joanjett24]

@@AquilaCat same thing. Mine figured it out during our first play session because i was shining it close to a wall and she kept looking back and forth between the pointer and the red dot on the wall. And if i shine the pointer somewhere and tell her where it is ( like look up look down look behind you) she'll look in that direction . But she never stopped enjoying the chase.

[@weakestportuguese]

Well, around 9 years ago, my dog found a wounded squirrel in our garden, and instead of eating it or just leaving it alone, she brought the squirrel to us so we could help it

[@mixtlillness9825]

My dogs would’ve ripped that squirrel apart. They’re chihuahuas. Gangsta as 🤬! At least until the weather gets cold and then they won’t leave their blankets. So gangsta. 🙄

[@sagittariusa2008]

My cat doesn't meow to get my attention. He stares at me until I get up then leads me to the door to go out, or towards the food dish. When close enough to the food dish he pushes the cat tunnel across the floor with his nose because he knows this will get the desired result....food. I am very well trained

[@sabrinacarpenter5431]

The poodle’s outlandish haircut actually had a practical purpose when poodles were used as water retriever hunting dogs. It was to keep vital body parts of the dogs warm while also streamlining the dogs fur for swimming.

[@ephennell4ever]

My family's dog story ... her name was Candie, and I used to say that she was the Einstein of the canine world. One of the best examples (witnessed, unfortunately, by *everyone* in the family ... you'll shortly see why I say "unfortunately") was this: Our house had a sliding glass door looking out on the backyard, and when she was bored, Candie would lay/sit there looking for excitement - looking out for squirrels or chipmunks (or cats) to chase; if she saw something she'd leap up, barking to be let out and knowing that, most likely, either my kid brother or I would run to let her out for the chase. Now, when she wanted to just 'hang out and relax' with the family, her preferred spot was to curl up in a very cozy recliner-chair; sometimes one of us would even recline the chair for her so she could sprawl like she was on a couch (yes, she was spoiled; on holidays and her birthday she got the same meal as us humans did - served on a plate even - the portions were just a little smaller!). If one of us was already in the chair she would come over, lock-in a stare and start jabbing you to get you to move (or at least let her up on your lap - even though she weighed over 50-lbs.!). One night she came over to the chair when I was in it, demanding I move; I resolutely stayed put (I had reclined it and was *very* comfortable) and repeatedly told her to "go away" ... she had a decent English vocabulary, and absolutely *knew* what "go away" meant! Finally, after *several* minutes (6 or 8?) she moved to the sliding glass door and laid down, looking out. After a couple minutes, she jumped up barking and 'dancing around' - I jumped up, dashed over, flung the door open, and looked down to watch her launch herself (always impressive to watch - she could go from 0-to-20 mph so fast you'd think she was rocket-powered!) ... she wasn't there, and I looked over just in time to see her hop into the recliner! I sheepishly slid the door closed to the laughs of everybody else, and went to sit on the floor, too embarrassed to *demand* the recliner back! And there were plenty of other occasions where she tricked people into giving her what she wanted, usually food/treats, by convincing someone that she hadn't been fed! She could also count/track things, up to about 6! P.S.- We got tired of her reacting, expecting food/treats when you said "food", or "treats", or "biscuits" (dog-biscuits), or "dinner", so we started spelling the words; only took her about a month to have all the spelling down pat!

[@peterhansen5804]

Once, my cat was bugging me - I knew he wanted to go outside. Then I told him (like a joke): "OK, we will go outside, if you go get the harness". 2 min later he stood in front of me with the harness in his mouth (and we went outside). Note: I never asked him this before (or since, for that matter). PS. That cat was crazy smart - I have so many stories about him

[@rusmiller816]

More!

[@peterhansen5804]

@@rusmiller816 OK, here's one: My cat had a very odd way of eating - he didn't put his head in the bowl taking in the food with his mouth, no - he preferred to sit on his butt and then grabbing the food with one paw and putting it in his mouth. When some of the pieces were very small, he one of his claws sprung out and he stabbed the piece - like a fork - and put it in. I guess he saw how I ate, and just imitated?

[@rusmiller816]

@@peterhansen5804 I think it's interesting that all cats don't eat with their claws. Seems easier.

[@EdieBabeMonster]

I saved a strange large wild cat (from starvation) that looked like a domestic cat but only too big. So it came to kind of hang around the homestead periodically over the years and one day it saved me from giant mean pig that had me cornered and surely would have hurt me severely if not killed me had it not been for the cat which out of no where attacked the evil pig allowing my escape... then... then this cat which I had never really touched before came to comfort me and I swear also to just make sure I wasn’t injured. We had a moment filled with emotions and I really feel like big cat expressed genuine empathy. I grew up on a farm with lots of animals but not many other people around and I’ve had lots of experiences with animals and came to appreciate all manner of intelligences that I didn’t understand myself and sometimes there were brief bridges in those different mindsets when it seemed there was mutual understanding, connection of some sort,

[@emmaharkins]

I have a cat called Strauss (after the composer) and he has noticed that i always use the door handles when using the doors in my flat. All apart from one are literally just push doors so the handle is purely there for when you want to pull them open. Strauss will push on the handle of every door apart from the one that you have to move to open the door, at which door he will jump up and catch the door handle to open that door. Blows my mind.

[@MrMockingbird1313]

This was an excellent video. For 25 years I have kept rescued umbrella cockatoo birds. This has been Identified as an "Einstein" species. Everyone of these rescue birds has shown it learned what people are saying. Although, one bird named Baby would speak to people, often in small sentences. He hears words and saves them to use later, in context. Now my family is all gone. Yesterday, I sneezed and Baby said bless you. I don't know where that came from. He calls me Dad or Jeff. But, he has never called me Honey or Dear, like my wife did. So he knows how women and men talk to each other. I believe birds are much smarter than we recognize.

[@Raygo.]

How about owls? One time I was visiting an owl zoo, and as I climbed a pathway approaching a certain cage a big one hurled itself down from a high branch heading straight for me. Because I'm a clever beast my brain rapidly computed that I was in no danger, so I didn't flinch as the bird, talons extended, collided with the mesh screen 3 or 4 feet from my face. It hung there for a few moments. Did I only imagine the look of frustrated disappointment in its eyes? Maybe not, because 5 minutes later, watching from higher up the path, I saw the same bird repeat the same stunt on a mom and her kids, who all jump scared and were visibly shaken. This time there was a kind of mean enjoyment in the owl's movements as it flew back to its favored perch. I watched it repeat the stunt twice more, move for move, over the next 30 minutes or so. So is trolling a sign of intelligence? Or insanity? 🤔

[@ArcherWarhound]

Sounds like the poor blighter was bored and making its own entertainment!

[@audigit]

Who doesn’t enjoy trolling when one is bored with an outcome that delays joy?

[@nickns732]

Hmm ive always heard owls are some of the dumbest birds.

[@DogFoxHybrid]

@@nickns732 They're not the dumbest but not the brightest either.

[@squirlmy]

Owls have some of the smallest brains among birds, which are really quite small. There was an owl who lived to be quite old at the Boston Museum of science, I see him once a year or so growing up, and learned a bit about owls. For one thing, us humans project our ideas about intelligence them because of their large eyes in a small head. Likewise all your ideas about the owl were just out of your own imagination, projected onto the bird. You seem to have a great imagination; just keep yourself grounded! Understand that owls are about as dumb as chickens, who will sometimes drown in the rain because it doesn't occur to them to close their beaks, or look elsewhere. Epic stupidity.

[@dundervevo6842]

We used to have a Billy goat ( for weed management) and he inadvertently sired a child and after a decade together ended up spending there last few months together refusing to leave my backyard (they'd lost the rest of there herd to feral dogs), his son fell really Ill and the vet said he's better off passing in his sleep, the father didn't leave his son's side until his passing after which he came and got us and lead us to his dead son, he then forfeited his will to live and wasted away until we had him put down and cremated. Moral of the story, goats are better parents than humans

[@Goralyna123]

I have a funny story about Galahs, a pink and grey parrot from Australia. It was raining, and a flock of galahs landed on the electric wires, running down our road. Suddenly, they all fell backwards and hung upside down with their wings out, catching the rain. The boss bird, walked over their feet and made sure that everyone was upside down, pushing the chest of anyone who wasn’t, until they were upside down. Lots of squawking and cackling accompanied this process, and they looked like they were having the time of their lives.😂😂😂

[@alandavidson8311]

Here's my story, Joe; it's about my Corgi named Saki and took place about ten years ago. I'd been working at home for a couple of years, ever since Saki was a puppy. In those days Saki liked to hang out with me in my studio while I worked. At some point I began to notice that she always seemed to know when I was about to take a break and take her for a walk. I would have the thought in my head, but before I had made a move to get out of my chair, she would jump up and go to the door. I started studying this behavior, trying to figure out how she knew. It took me months, but it finally dawned upon me that she knew the sound of Control-Alt Delete. That's the Windows key combination that opens the dialog box I would use to lock my computer before going out.

[@alphamorion4314]

Could that be an example of pavlonian reflex?

[@philn.4692]

Joe: Showing his dog. Everyone: Analyzing Joe's house.

[@extropiantranshuman]

I think he shows it so he doesn't have to worry about people wondering what his home's like

[@weltraumameisenbaer8789]

he is teasing us. i really wanted to know what was behind this door.

[@THEmickTHEgun]

I thought Joe lived in a library

[@spiritmatter1553]

It’s a beautiful house, and so clean!

[@juliao1255]

My dog knows how to spell "treat" -- well, actually, knows what I'm spelling. He also figured out that to tell me he wants to go out, bring me my socks. He grabbed them out of the laundry hamper. He also throws them at me, as if to drive home the point.

[@MyLifeWithPolioRavenStelberg]

I am a mom in a wheelchair and I was wondering if you could do a video about wheelchairs in how far they have become and what they would possibly look like in the future.

[@mlfeathers7527]

I like that idea.

[@thephoenixgod5177]

he did a video about technology and fixing disabilities

[@gobblinal]

Here's a couple things that have been done at my work: commons.bcit.ca/redlab/research/the-elevation-wheelchair-and-dynamic-wheeled-mobility/ commons.bcit.ca/news/2019/08/dog-wheelchair/

[@gnumel]

Have you seen the 'not a wheelchair' from Jerry Rigs Everything?

[@lubricatedgoat]

Within 30 years the concept of a wheelchair will be moot. We'll be able to fix absolutely any health issue. I'm in a similar situation btw. A spider-like walking wheelchair would be pretty cool. Put powered wheels that can lock on the tip of its legs and it could blast around at speed, then walk up stairs, or push an elevator button. So many cool things to come, and much sooner if we'd stop wasting so much time and money on useless endeavours.

[@John_Weiss]

The first 3 cats that my husband and I had: Ian was too smart for our own good. Frannie would watch Ian do something just once, and learn how to do it. Our 3rd cat, Martin … Martin, "rode the short-bus to school." Ian could open lever-door-handles, and I once caught him trying to open door knobs, his paw-size being the only thing that prevented him from succeeding. We had to put eye-hooks and baby-locks on certain doors to keep Ian and Frannie out of those closets & cabinets. Frannie attempted to manipulate us, including after we got Martin. Which backfired on her, because Martin _grew_ [we think he was part Maine Coon]. Martin took _4 years_ to figure out how to "hiss-n-spit" to express displeasure … but he did it wrong. Instead of hissing, he'd let out this pathetic, "Hhhhh." He'd basically say the letter-H instead of hissing. We still acted like he was hissing, though, because it was so pathetic and cute we felt bad for him. It took him another 2 years to learn how to hiss correctly. We had Ian for 14 years, and Frannie and Martin for 16.5 years. And lost them 5 years apart, Ian in 2009, Frannie in 2014, and most recently Martin, in 2019. And will always remember them fondly.

[@videolvr264]

I find it cool that my dog remembers what name i've given each of her toys and goes and gets the one i ask for for play time.

[@bi-furious5565]

I have two interesting stories about animal intelligence. Once when I was younger, I watched a littke black bird pull a worm out of the ground and bring it over to the edge of a pond. There, the bird dipped the worm in the water and used it to catch a little fish. This blew my mind at the time. Like, the bird was able to over come the desire to eat the worm because it knew it could use ot to catch a better meal. My second story is a little less interesting but I find it kind of funny. So my cat, like all cats, likes to think he's our alarm clock. Constant meowing, biting, climbing all over us. The typical annoying cat stuff first thing in the morning 😂 Usually we just ignore him, but recently he's started using a new tactic. He's learned that my fiance needs the white noise of the fan to sleep, so if all else fails, he literally goes over to the fan and pulls the plug out of the wall. He's done this multiple times and it's wild to me 😂

[@pilotavery]

Yeah but cats are douchebags

[@hornbeam7131]

I had been staying with a friend for about a week and was trying to book my journey home on the phone. The person on the other end of the line gave me the details, I had paper in reach but no pen. This wasn't my place and I had no idea where I could found one. My friend's pit bull had been sitting watching me. She got up, stuck her head under a chair and came out with a pen in her mouth, she came up to me and dropped it at my feet and went back to where she had been sitting. I had not said the word "pen" she just somehow knew what I wanted and remembered where she had seen one.

[@sberryscake]

dogs, like most animals are telepathic. some more than others. you put a picture of a pen in your head and the dog saw it. you can do the same with other things like a ball. not all dogs are as open mentally as others. labs and terriers tend to be. one way to tell is if you have a strong telepathic dog. when they play (like at a dog park) with other dogs, with telepathically stronger dogs, they will make almost no sounds will playing. less telepathic dogs will make lots of vocal and noise cues. cats are telepathic. they only meow for people specifically. their meow is specific to its closest human. YOU are expected to know what they mean.

[@hornbeam7131]

@@sberryscake She was very quiet, and I well could believe she sensed thoughts and intentions.

[@johnharris7353]

Yes, I believe it.

[@aozzya1563]

@@sberryscake Can you explain to me how a dog is able to read minds?

[@thesecondslit1710]

What a smart bitch huh !

[@kimc5814]

So watching this video in August of 2022, and wanted to share a story of a random bird who flew right in front of me as I was walking. I had to stop cold in my tracks or I would have stepped on him. He looked me in the eye, looked over at a pretzel on the sidewalk and looked back at me. I understood instantly that he wanted me to crush the pretzel so he could eat the crumbs. I happily complied, and he immediately flew over to start eating. It was a special moment with a mind control bird. 😄❤️

[@richardsleep2045]

Also I once got mugged by a couple of corvids on Richmond Green. One distracted me whist it's accomplice nicked my sandwich.

[@druid139]

Sucker

[@trespire]

Did you call the Magpie police patrole ?

[@waynedesauniere4661]

my dogs woke me up when i was sleeping and unbeknownst to me, being poisoned by carbon monoxide and got me outside.

[@zwz.zdenek]

If you have a coal stove, install a detector. Some buildings even require it by code. Dogs' understanding of saving is limited and they may fail you the next time.

[@jessienebulousart]

That's amazing. Glad you're still with us!

[@Andytlp]

good doggos you owe them your life lol.

[@donhbloomer]

I worked caring for a couple of elephants and helped a group of college kids collect data on our elephants. They did the dot on forehead experiment to see if the elephants realized the reflection in the mirror was themselves. I knew elephants were very smart but I did not expect them to succeed. That is because the test was designed for primates which are very visual and socially groom others. Eyesight is not elephants’ most important sense and they do not groom each other, so they were going into the test with two strikes against them. But they did demonstrate self recognition anyway! It was a privilege to work with elephants for decades.

[@Wooskii1]

I know everyone thinks their pet is special, but I really did have a cat that was pretty crafty- too smart to stay an inside cat, so we just gave up even trying (figured out how to work doors with a handle and push em open, but always kept trying and failing to "grasp" the door nob lol). She would always follow me or my group around, or randomly drop by friends' houses and the places in the neighborhood where we would hang, just to chill with the people until everyone went home or she got bored. She'd often be like "Hey, HEY! human, walk me home and let me inside, you locked out again". New friends would be so confused when she showed up at their door or walked into their garage like she owned the place, while nobody else batted an eyelash- "Isn't that his cat!?", "Yea she's just looking for him, hang on. Yo! your cat is here, looks like she wants to go home!", "Ok fine, I'll walk (or drive) her back in a couple minutes" was a constant thing (had to give in, and install cat doors). She would come chill while we fished in the woods (her rubbing against my leg at night scared me a couple times at first) Also would just hop in my van both when pulling in and heading (and only the van, where she could sit up higher and look out the windows) always sitting or sleeping on the hood of another car while waiting for someone to show up. Lived to 21 somehow, despite being so scrawny, yet bold at times. She did everything on her own terms and time and didn't like to be picked up for some reason- would jump off your lap if you put her there, then immediately turn around and hop back up, but would always come hop up if she heard someone call her name (and/ or some other nicknames), especially if I patted my hand on my lap/ chest/ next to me on the couch and say "come on", or "hop up"). Kinda sad, but I'll probably never get another cat- she was a family member for (even now ~10 years later) half my life... Different thought - I have a silly theory that if the octopus evolved slightly different they would have a ancient Roman like civilization with long term settlements (towns/ cities)- If they didn't die soon after producing offspring, and lived even longer, they could teach their offspring all the stuff people and other animals do, and become more social passing down even more of those learned talents (language/ communication, how to use tools, build habits, when/ how to find recourses/ food, places/ things to avoid, etc.) I don't know much about them, but it seems possible in another timeline, fun to think about in the very least.

[@ankhpom9296]

The DNA of the octopus has no linkage to other life forms. The theory is it is totally alien.

[@iAmNovaFilms]

My sisters dog Chandler (Bing) is a Shitzu who we’ve always considered very dumb. Always running into stuff, barking at every sound as if it’s someone coming through the door (it’s usually not) One day there were unmatched pairs of shoes all over the house. Chandler brought each missing shoe to its other pair, completing each pair. Chandler is a savant.

[@teemusid]

OCD? That stands for Orderly Canine Disorder.

[@whydoineedtohaveahandle]

Once I took my dog for a walk in a new city when visiting family. After a few hours we walked that same walk again and there was a “for sale” sign on a yard that hadn’t been there a few hours earlier. My dog absolutely freaked out and started barking at the sign. I never realized how much he actually looks at his surroundings and memorizes where everything is. I wouldn’t have even noticed if it wasn’t for him. What a smart boi

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

Anything strange or different for doggies, they can sense. My Malinois Mix barks at anything that feels "off" to her and she's usually right!

[@cutekoala]

He wanted you to buy the house for him!

[@theocdogg]

My damn dog used to throw its bed over the fence and then he would jump over, drag the bed to the front yard and relax and watch the cars go by. Then he would take the bed back to its original spot before I got back from work!!!

[@mikewhitfield2994]

That thing about octopi crossing tanks happens in pet stores too. In one case a pet store set up hidden cameras and discovered that at night a small octopus that had secretly hitchhiked in with live rock was leaving that tank, crawling across the floor and up into another tank, snacking on very expensive reef fish, then crawling back across the floor and re-entering "its" tank.

[@rasaja]

My cat went and got my roommate when I had fallen asleep drunk outside in below freezing weather. Smart girl. Probably saved my life.

[@ManDudeYeah]

Did your cat later organize an intervention about your dangerous drinking problem? Mine did.

[@Games_and_Music]

Or it was simply trying to get food from another responsive person in the house instead. But i prefer your version.

[@ManOnTheRange]

@@Games_and_Music or she thinks "oh no my walking food dispenser is in trouble, better save him or i will be hungry" :D

[@aurorasmith5098]

I can believe that. I had a cat who was far more intelligent than anyone initially believed. There are definitely cats who would understand the situation and would want to fix it.

[@pixlplague]

That, or, OR... it just figured out you may not be around anymore and is just an apathetic opportunistic sociopath... but yeah, probably what you said :)

[@yuuzyerbrejn9603]

I had a super smart, super clever cat who well understood human language, but wouldn't kill mice. Many years after I first discovered this-I lived rurally and needed a mousing cat so it was disappointing- I was telling the story to a bunch of friends over for a party of how I'd caught a mouse and tried to get him interested in mice, but he just wouldn't and it was really frustrating and, even though he was my buddy, he was useless. The cat is listening to this going on, and runs out the cat door. A few minutes after the laughter died down about my useless cat story, in comes Wiley with a mouse in his mouth for the very first time as if to say " F you buddy"! Love that cat!

[@SilvinaLisboa]

He knew what you were talking on the phone. Sometimes, I got the impression that somehow some pets can understand every word we say. I had several dogs and parrots and when I talked to them is like they could understand. It can be creepy too. It looks we are part of their pack or flock.

[@mjinba07]

I had a cat who brought me mice for years. They'd be laid at the threshold of a doorway or in some other place that I'd frequent, so he'd be sure I received it. He'd watch to be sure I did. I'd pick it up and thank him, roll it in a paper towel, and put it in the freezer until he was asleep so I could toss it out in the woods without him seeing. One day I was hurrying out the door and he'd brought me a mouse but I didn't have time to go through the ritual of storing it. I picked it up by it's tail, thanked him, and tossed it out in the woods right in front of him. He never brought me another mouse. From time to time I'd find their little bodies, heads chewed off - apparently the best part in his opinion. But no more mice for me.

[@BarryHWhite]

Yeah, FAQ indeed!.

[@animesenpai1163]

We had a cat that will go crazy for chips and junk foods and any time they hear a plastic crunch of a chip bag they'd go crazy trying to find a way to it, usually forcing our door open or breaking our roof.

[@dr.lorief.9499]

I have two African grey parrots and they DEFINITELY know exactly what they are saying and say what they say in context. They are smarter than we will ever truly know.

[@ronjohnson2333]

Years ago I was diving on the on- ramp to the freeway when I saw a murder of crows. I just kept driving thinking these birds would get out of the way. Most did, but one was a little slow and bounced off the top of my windshield. I watched from my rear view mirror as it rolled violently across the road. For weeks afterwards, birds would come from all around just to poop on my car.

[@DVRKHORSE]

"They just have a good time!" Dolphin breakdancing in the background.