DailyDirt: Smarter Than The Average Bear Cat... Bird?

Animals aren't as dumb as you might think, and the more we study our pets -- the more we find that we may not just be anthropomorphizing our favorite animals. Some animals definitely have personalities, and some can exhibit some pretty complex cognitive skills. If we can understand more and more animal brains, maybe we'll be able to figure out our own brains, too, someday. Here are just a few things to remember about cats, fish and birds.

• Cats are pretty smart pets, and they may understand more than you think -- like cause and effect. Okay, that ability isn't exactly surprising, but cats might also understand a bit of physics, too -- but it probably won't help them when they're trapped in a box with a radioactive source connected to trigger a release of poison.
• How long does a fish's memory really last? Finding Dory makes a joke out of fish having short term memory loss, but some researchers have measured some fish with memory spans that can last 3 months.
• Bird brains are surprisingly packed with more neurons per pound than mammals (including primates). This might explain how some birds can make tools, pass the mirror test, understand cause and effect, and even be said to be as smart as a 5-year-old human child.

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