Dolphins and Dogs

Yesterday I came across two interesting displays of animal intelligence. I'm haven't quite decided which is more impressive.

The dolphins...



Clearly there's a reason that dolphins are considered to be the second most intelligent creature on earth. A few years back while getting some down time on Roatan (highly recommended), an island off the coast of Honduras, I join up with a dolphin encounter class conducted by the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences. I knew that dolphins were intelligent but there'e no substitute to seeing their smarts first hand.

Onto the dogs, from the Financial Times...

There is one special sub-group of strays that stands apart from the rest: Moscow’s metro dogs.

Neuronov says there are some 500 strays that live in the metro stations, especially during the colder months, but only about 20 have learned how to ride the trains. This happened gradually, first as a way to broaden their territory. Later, it became a way of life. “Why should they go by foot if they can move around by public transport?” he asks.

“They orient themselves in a number of ways,” Neuronov adds. “They figure out where they are by smell, by recognising the name of the station from the recorded announcer’s voice and by time intervals. If, for example, you come every Monday and feed a dog, that dog will know when it’s Monday and the hour to expect you, based on their sense of time intervals from their ­biological clocks.”