Animal Intelligence Facts

There’s a bonobo named Kanzi who has learned to build a campfire and cook his own food.

In 2004, four lifeguards were swimming off Ocean Beach, New Zealand when a pod of seven dolphins suddenly herded them into a tight group and started circling. For 40 minutes, the dolphins swam inches from their bodies, slapping the water with their tails. When one swimmer tried to break away, two dolphins pushed him back. Only then did he spot the 9-foot great white shark circling two metres below them.

A dolphin named Kelly was trained to trade litter for fish. She started tearing paper into tiny pieces and trading each scrap separately for maximum fish. Then she lured a seagull into the pool, caught it, and traded that for even more fish. She taught her calf. Her calf taught others. She was training them.

A dog named Eclipse was at a Seattle bus stop with her owner. He stopped to finish a cigarette. The bus came. She got on without him. She rode 3 stops, got off at the dog park, and waited for him to catch up. Then she did it again. Every day. For 7 years. She had her own transit card on her collar.

In 2019, a beluga whale wearing a harness labeled "Equipment St. Petersburg" appeared near Hammerfest, Norway. They named him Hvaldimir, a pun on "whale" and "Vladimir." Weeks later, a woman dropped her phone off a dock into the ocean. Hvaldimir dove down, picked it up in his mouth, and brought it back to her. Her friend caught the whole thing on camera.

Researcher Dominique Potvin spent years designing GPS harnesses for Australian magpies - magnetic releases so only she could remove them. Within 10 minutes of fitting the fifth bird, an untracked female magpie freed a younger bird's harness. By day three, all five trackers were gone. It was the first documented case of birds helping each other remove tracking devices.

A four-year-old girl in Seattle started feeding crows. They started leaving her presents: earrings, buttons, LEGO pieces, a rusty screw she labeled "Third Favorite." Then her mom dropped a camera lens cap in an alley blocks away. The crows dove into the water, fished it out, and left it on the birdbath. The bird-cam caught the whole thing.

In 1998, Jo Ann Altsman had a heart attack alone in her vacation trailer. Her 150-pound pig Lulu squeezed through the dog door, cutting her belly, and lay down in the middle of the road. Cars drove around her. She kept going back to check on Jo Ann, then back to the road. A driver finally stopped. Lulu led him to the trailer. Doctors said 15 more minutes and Jo Ann likely would have died. Lulu later died of a heart attack herself.