There is an English octopus named Paul in the Oberhausen Aquarium in Germany, and when Paul was first transported to Germany, it took a long time to adapt to the environment.
In 2008, the European Championship, co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, kicked off in full view, and fans around the world were infected by the atmosphere of the game and participated in the game of prediction of the championship.
At the same time, Paul in the Oberhausen Aquarium also became interested in this grand sporting event, and Paul thought for a long time when the staff printed the German and Argentine flags on the outer layers of two identical glass jars.
It wasn't until the staff were about to remove the jar that Paul, as if finally making up his mind, quickly climbed into the jar with the German flag printed on it, and the final result was as Paul predicted, Germany beat Argentina 4-0.
Until the end of Euro 2008, Paul participated in a total of 6 predictions, 5 of which guessed the results, and Paul became famous.
In 2010, in the 19th World Cup held in South Africa, Paul participated again, selected all 8 predictions, with a success rate of 100%, such superb and accurate prediction ability, but also people called it "the best prophetic emperor".
Anyone familiar with football should know that even the most experienced fans or sports experts can hardly guarantee such a high hit rate, so how did Paul the Octopus do it? Are there any other animals in the world besides Paul that make people feel unusually intelligent?
Paul the Octopus
octopus
In fact, octopuses are arguably the smartest invertebrates in the world, with extremely complex genomes and an unimaginable number of neurons, and their brains account for a relatively large proportion of the body, which gives octopuses more possibilities to think.
Unlike humans, we need to rely on the brain to send instructions to make corresponding physical responses, and the octopus's 8 brachiopods have an independent nervous system and can do some spontaneous behaviors.
As scientists have deepened their research on the octopus population, people have become more deeply aware that octopuses may be one of the most different creatures on Earth and humans, and many scientists even say that octopuses are the most human-like species that humans can come into contact with.
elephant
Elephants tend to be large and clumsy, but what many people don't know is that elephants are one of the few creatures with independent consciousness that can even recognize themselves in the mirror.
In addition, elephants are also a group with complex social relationships, they can accurately perceive the emotions of their companions, when one elephant in the herd feels restless, the other elephants will immediately form an encirclement to surround it, and touch its body with their noses to comfort it.
When family members die, elephants gather in silence and sometimes bury their bodies in dirt and leaves, just like human funeral ceremonies.
Unlike some mammals' "higher fighting power, higher status" thinking, elephant herds that determine who is the leader is most important for intelligence and problem-solving ability.
For elephant herds that pay more attention to the interior, the personality of an elephant not only determines its status in the herd, but also directly affects its reproductive rate, and the number of children of elephants with poor personality and bad minds will be greatly reduced, which also shows that elephants are creatures with high intelligence.
chimpanzee
As a creature with 97% genetic similarities to humans, chimpanzees can be described as creatures with the highest IQ and behaviors most similar to humans other than humans.
Like humans, chimpanzees have a strong sense of self, not only can identify themselves in the mirror, but also pay great attention to appearance, and even pick up the mirror to look left and right, to "dress up".
A chimpanzee named "Koko" at the San Francisco Zoo not only mastered more than 2,000 words after spending a long time with humans, but was even able to accurately find the cover of a magazine with his photo in a bunch of visiting chaotic magazines.
Not only that, as "Koko" became more and more smooth in communication with humans, it expressed its desire to get a pet in sign language on its birthday, and then it got a cute kitten.
Unlike violent monkeys, "Koko" did not do anything to the kitten to abuse or even beat, but like humans treat their pets, very gentle, even cautious.
In addition to similar behavior patterns to humans, chimpanzees show intelligence and reflexes that are even higher than humans, skills that ordinary humans need to spend some energy to learn, but chimpanzees can do it effortlessly
crow
I believe that everyone has heard the story of "The Crow Drinks Water", and even 70% or 80% of people can complete the retelling of this fable, but how many people know that this is not just a story, the crow in reality may only be more than the protagonist of the story.
The proportion of brain weight of crows can be regarded as the best among birds, and the huge brain capacity allows crows to have thinking abilities that other birds do not have, and because of this, crows behave differently from other birds.
When encountering difficulties, the crow's first reaction is not to fly away, but to stand in place and think about how to solve it, sometimes in order to eat the bugs in the slit, the crows will even make their own tools, they will find a branch of suitable thickness nearby, and then use the beak to bend one end into a hook, so that they can easily catch the bugs and eat them.
Although far from the size of elephants, crows also have a strong sense of self and can identify their own image in the mirror, in addition, zoologists have observed that crow populations have complex social relations, and when they feel threatened, crows will unite and unite to attack the enemy.
When one crow in the population dies, other crows will hold funerals for the companion, and together they will mourn the body in the middle, which also shows that the crow has a strong sense of community.
pig
When people describe a person as stupid, they will say that the other person is a "pig brain", but this is a cognitive error for most people, pigs are actually much smarter than we think, the third smartest animal among mammals, the first two are chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins.
Although the appearance is thick and cute, but the pig is actually very shrewd and capable, when the scientist and the pig with a baffle separated, the pig can judge the specific location of the food through the picture in the mirror, and bypass the baffle to eat it, which shows that the pig has a strong analytical reasoning ability, not what people call "simple mind, developed limbs".
Not only that, the trained pigs are fully able to do things according to human instructions without the slightest error, and with the efforts of researchers, several pigs have successfully learned to play game consoles.
In some countries, even police pigs are used instead of police dogs, trained pigs are not only responsive, but also very obedient, even better than dogs, with a strong sense of smell, police pigs can find criminals hidden drugs and guns in a very short time.
In people's impression, pigs seem to be lying dirty and rolling in mud puddles all the time, so people naturally think that pigs are sloppy and stupid creatures, but in fact, pigs love to be clean.
Since pigs do not have sweat glands, they cannot cool off by sweating in the hot summer, so pigs have come up with a way, that is, rolling in cold mud puddles.
In order for the body temperature to drop quickly, pigs need to soak their entire bodies in mud puddles, and when they come out, the mud solidifies on the surface of the body, which is why the pigs we see are always dirty.
Although for humans, bathing should be washed with clean water to be comfortable, but for pigs, mud baths are a lot of benefits, mud can not only cool down, the "armor" formed after drying can also effectively prevent mosquito bites, it is simply a double kill.
Although most people choose cats and dogs as pets, in fact, piglets not only do not have their shortcomings, but also combine their advantages, if not can grow to two or three hundred pounds, I believe that pigs will also be the choice of most people's pets.
African grey parrot
Parrots have long been loved as a smart and small bird, and although the term "parroting" contains a pejorative meaning, it shows the intelligence and wisdom of parrots in some ways.
Although the brain weight of a parrot is a few tenths that of a human, the regions of the parrot and human genome that control brain development are basically the same, which is why parrots have the same ability to communicate as humans.
In the parrot population, a breed called the African Grey Parrot shows more outstanding intelligence, and the African Grey Parrot not only imitates human speech, but also creates new vocabulary and teaches it to other companions.
According to the results of zoologists, African gray parrots have the emotions of two-year-old children and the IQ of 7-year-old humans, and after systematic training, African gray parrots can basically reach the level of good interaction with humans.
In addition, the African Grey Parrot can accurately match the trainer's voice to his face, and when he sees an unfamiliar face, even if he hears a familiar sound, the African Grey Parrot will not respond.
In addition to their strong learning ability, African grey parrots are extremely long-term and dedicated animals, they will only have one mate in their lives, not only foraging together, but also grooming each other frequently.
mouse
The small mouse has always been a kind of love and hate in people's hearts, and people like its agility while hating their behavior of stealing food and gnawing furniture everywhere, "rats cross the street, everyone shouts and beats" is exactly what it means.
However, as a small creature, mice not only have the advantage of dexterity and agility, they also have many advantages that humans do not have.
First of all, the sense of smell of mice is very sensitive, about 3 times that of humans, can smell extremely faint smell, in Tanzania, some staff will even train African giant rats into professional deminers, according to statistics, an African giant rat a day to find more mines, than the staff two weeks to search for mines.
In the famous maze experiment, the mouse was able to completely depict the route of the maze in the head after an exploration, and when the experimenter put the mouse into the same maze for the second time, the mouse found the cookie at the end in a very short time and successfully walked out of the maze.
Although mice carry a lot of infamy, but if humans can be good at using the strengths of mice, one day can even use trained mice for disaster rescue, with their small body, and sensitive sense of smell, mice can quickly find the target, help rescuers find the injured.
bottlenose dolphin
As the second most intelligent creature in the world, dolphins have always been a mysterious existence in people's hearts, and this is all because they live in the blue sea.
Unlike other terrestrial creatures, the only way we can meet dolphins is in the aquarium, watching the dolphins and trainers interact intimately, and visitors can't help but marvel at the wonders of nature while laughing.
In the process of training dolphins, we have discovered their specialness, but it is not until zoologists have conducted some in-depth experiments and studies on dolphins that we can really know how intelligent dolphins are.
As a creature with advanced intelligence, dolphins, like elephants, parrots and other creatures, can quickly identify themselves in the mirror, which indicates that dolphins have a strong sense of self.
In addition, unlike other mammals, dolphins not only perform comforting and mourning behaviors for creatures of the same group, but also express concern and concern for other species.
cat
As the second place in the list of people's favorite pets, cats have always been shown as cute and docile, and over time, people have gradually regarded cats as pets that need to be protected, but forget that they are animals of the same family as tigers.
Although cats have been tamed by humans for 3,500 years, some of the bestiality flowing in the bones will not change, as a species that once lived in the wild, cats have a super sensitivity to danger and threats, once they notice that something is wrong, they will immediately alert the owner.
In addition to being extremely vigilant, cats' ability to imitate is also one of the best in the animal kingdom, they will imitate human sitting, use the toilet like humans, and even some cats will watch TV with relish.
dog
I believe many people have seen the movie "Hachiko the Loyal Dog", in which the Shiba Inu waited day after day at the station where the owner left work after the death of the owner.
Hachiko's loyalty touched countless viewers, which also made people more impressed by the dog's loyalty, but in fact, dogs have many advantages that have not been discovered by humans.
Dogs are naturally extremely comprehensible, and without much training, dogs can understand and remember the meaning of the owner's gestures, even very complex instructions, dogs can master after a few trainings.