What is the smartest animal not human

[123Herpatology]

I think i watched an episode of "The most Extreme" a few nights back about intelligence, and they narrowed it down to a species of crow (don't remember which scecies). they just had it go through a series of tests, and recorded the speed at which it completed it. they said this species of crow was able to have a highly developed sense of time (they even showed a crow use traffic lights to create their dinner). In conclusion they said it was about the intelligence level of a 5-6 year old child. But i think it is hard to distinguish intelligence because as you guys said, it's based off of human intelligence which is merely an adaptation to fit our niche.

[PatriotUSA]

We don't really have a niche though, thats what makes us unique. The thing is, we live in pretty much every kind of environment BECAUSE of our intelligence, its not that we are intelligent because of the environments we live in. Intelligence is simply a measure of a creatures ability to create, innovate, or understand. Many animals have a highly developed intelligence, but it never compares to the human.

[Inuyasha]

wow this question got side tracked. LOL, I'm luving it, two of my first topics are reviving themselves. But niche had relatively little to do with what i had oringially intended to question to be.

[LaNcE222]

DOLPHIN definetly

[Inuyasha]

yeah, and they are definelty the cutest, wait did i just say that.

[tropicbirder]

I think dolphins are the animals with the highest capacity to learn, excepting humans. I just wish people would realize this and avoid hurting them! They get killed by our nets so often...

[Inuyasha]

right u r, but there's hope let. Some reservations have been formed. Although these reservations resmeble more like aquariums than real wild enviroments i think they are useful. I forget a really good book exists i think it is called whispers from ???? It's about a dolphin who humans run experiments on to try to make him talk but the dolphin only talks to a custodian. And it's up the the custodian to make things right. Really sad.

[sidso]

"preform Quantum Physics." This seems silly to me. IDK

[Linn]

I voted whale
for one thing they have a complex
communication system
also anatomicaly there is a lot of folding of the upper surface of their brain ( in the cerebral cortex area ) which is found in all intelligent animals.
Plus have you ever saw the eyes of a whale? To me they show
intelligence, they are really cool.

[kclo4x]

I have heard that dolphins are the only other animal that just have sex for pleasure, however... i question the truth in that... like seriously
does anyone know if that is not just a rumor going around?

well anyways thats why i choose dolphins it seems like something that would happen because of intelligence

[hanhan2008]

The smartest animal, if exists, is God.

[orbit]

To be honest I haven't read all the replies, but in case nobody has mentioned it, bacteria are not animals. They are not even in the same domain let alone the same kingdom. They are prokaryotes and not eukaryotes such as kingdom animalia, plantae, fungi, and protista.