Question: Are cats smarter than dogs or are dogs smarter than cats?

Sarah Martin answered on 21 Jun 2012:

Hi meg,

Comparing the intelligence of animals of different species is difficult although there are certain tests and problem sets psychologists use to try and do it anyway. Dogs and cats are specialized to do different things! Dogs are designed to be more efficient runners while cats have better ability at manipulating things with their paws. Thus a test that involved pulling strings or operating levers would tend to favor a cat, while a test involving moving from place to place, where speed is a measure of performance, would favor a dog. Charles Darwin claimed, “Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive,” and one might argue that by this definition all species that stay healthy, remain numerous and avoid extinction are equally intelligent!

However if we leave these tests aside, we find that using a comparison of brain weight to body size, called the Encephalization Quotient or EQ, does actually give us a sensible order of intelligence! This compensates for the fact that bigger animals tend to have bigger brains and basically shifts the question to one of whether the animal has a larger or smaller brain size than what we would expect for an animal with its body mass.

Based on the encephalization quotient, the brightest animals on the planet are humans, followed great apes, porpoises, and elephants. The dog is close behind elephants in its EQ. Descending down the list we find cats lower than dogs, followed by horses, sheep, mice, rats and rabbits. As a general rule, animals that hunt for a living (like canines) are smarter than strict vegetarians – you don’t need much intelligence to outsmart a leaf of lettuce!

🙂 Sarah