What animal species has the highest IQ?

Answer 1

THE CHALLENGES

# The first challenge is to define 'intelligence' or the 'intellect'. # The second challenge is to agree what aspects and functions of life should be included in designing an 'intelligence test' that is sufficiently comprehensive and universally applicable, and entirely suitable for establishing an I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient). # The third challenge is then actually measuring intellect/intelligence and collating the results from a suitably large and representative sample.

THE I.Q. OF A HUMAN is a number denoting the ratio of a person's intelligence to the statistical norm for a person of the same age, 100 being the average.

QUESTION: There are various ways of measuring the human intellect, but would any of these ways be appropriate for measuring the 'intellect' of other animals?

INTELLIGENCE is often described as the ability to solve problems, or rather, the demonstrable ability to solve problems. But there is no agreed way or standard for determining intelligence, or even for identifying comparative intelligences, especially if we wish to compare humans with other animals who have totally different types of abilities and specialities, more suited to their respective ecological roles.

NUMEROUS ANIMAL SPECIES are noted for their intelligence. Dogs are very intelligent, and some breeds of dogs seem more intelligent than others. Cats are also very intelligent, in their own way. Cats and some birds demonstrate remarkable 'homing' ability, an ability which is far beyond that of humans of the same age.

BIRDS AND FISH have phenomenal migratory abilities. Octopuses are highly intelligent and can solve problems. They are probably more intelligent than any other order of invertebrates. Dolphins have an intelligence and are able to interact with man. Seals, in training experiments, have shown the ability to distinguish between displayed letters and numbers in tests where they could not possibly have known the difference before the tests.

INSECTS have amazing nest-building skills. Ants display an amazing group intelligence, each member of a colony cooperating with each other in the interests of the better good of the colony. Squirrels have excellent memories. They remember the thousands of disparate places they have buried food for eating after their hibernation, even if their environment has radically changed in the meantime.

PRIMATES: In the scientific order 'primates', Homo sapiens stands out as being particularly intelligent. However, chimpanzees, another species of primate, have outperformed human college students in tasks requiring remembering numbers! So which are the more intelligent, humans or chimps? [Humans only have 46 chromosomes in their DNA whereas chimpanzees have 48! Maybe this is the explanation!]

SUMMARY: By human standards, using criteria appropriate for humans, humans come out tops.

But if we consider the wide-ranging and superlative skills demonstrated in other orders of the animal kingdom, perhaps we are all champions in our respective leagues!

Answer 2

According to Edward O. Wilson, a behavioral biologist (scientist who studies the behavior of animals), the ten most intelligent animals are the following:

1. Chimpanzee (two species)
2. Gorilla
3. Orangutan
4. Baboon (seven species, including drill and mandrill)
5. Gibbon (seven species)
6. Monkey (many species, especially the macaques, the patas, and the Celebes black ape)
7. Smaller-toothed whale (several species, especially killer whale)
8. Dolphin (many of the approximately eighty species)
9. Elephant (two species)
10. Pig

The definitave answer is Chimpanzee.

Answer 3

humans and then dolphins