ANIMALS

The animal kingdom is filled with almost an infinite variety of creatures. Scientists discover new species and sub species every year.
Each one is a wonder onto itself and one could labor for years to uncover its secrets. It is an unfortunate fact that the closest that most of us get to wildlife is through bars at the zoo.
Our urban lifestyle has the effect of cutting us off from the glorious world of the animal kingdom. Every animal has a lesson to teach us that we are not hearing.

Dogs
The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.
The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.
To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children.
Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.)

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Cats
Unlike the brains of dogs, the brains of cats have an amazing surface folding and a structure that is about 90 percent similar to ours.
The cerebral cortex of cats is greater and more complex compared to that of dogs. The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain responsible for cognitive information processing. A cat's cerebral cortex contains about twice as many neurons as that of dogs. Cats have 300 million neurons, whereas dogs have about 160 million. In fact, cats have more nerve cells in the visual areas of their brain, a part of cerebral cortex, than humans and most other mammals.
If cats are so smart, why don't we use them as police cats, military cats and seeing-eye cats? Maybe because they are too smart to be enslaved by humans.
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Birds
Some still consider the human mind to be unique, with animals capable of only the simplest mental processes. But a new generation of scientists believe that creatures, including birds, can solve problems by insight and even learn by example, as human children do. Birds can even talk in a meaningful way.
The level of intelligence among birds may vary. But no living bird is truly stupid. Each generation of birds that leaves the protection of its parents to become independent has the inborn genetic information that will help it to survive in the outside world and the skills that it has learned from its parents.
They would never have met the challenge of evolution without some degree of native cunning. It’s just that some have much more than others.
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