Intelligence ranked

What do crows and octopuses have in common? 10 tales of animal smarts

Published on March 11, 2025

Credit: Aaron Baw

When it comes to intelligence, humans are not alone on the planet. Far from it—many species exhibit incredible problem-solving skills, complex social behaviors, and even the ability to communicate with us. While their abilities differ from those of humans, they often excel in areas where humans are at a disadvantage. From the ocean depths to the skies, these 10 animals have earned their place among the planet’s brightest.

Dolphins

Credit: Freddy Jimenez

Dolphins are not just adorable—they're renowned for their intelligence and communication skills. Using distinct sounds, they share information about food, danger, and more.

They understand human gestures, perform complex tricks, and even recognize themselves in mirrors—a trait shared with humans, some great apes, and elephants.

Chimpanzees

Credit: Demure Storyteller

Chimpanzees are often regarded as humans' closest relatives in the animal kingdom. They can use tools to gather food, build shelter, and even hunt.

Remarkably, chimpanzees can learn to communicate with humans using sign language and are capable of understanding symbolic meaning, making them one of the smartest non-human animals.

Elephants

Credit: Hu Chen

Elephants display an extraordinary level of empathy and self-awareness. Known for their exceptional ability to recall places, individuals, and events across decades, they possess large brains with highly developed regions linked to emotions and memory.

Moreover, they mourn deceased companions and assist injured or sick elephants—clear signs of advanced cognition.

Crows

Credit: Matteo Paganelli

Crows exhibit problem-solving skills on par with some primates. They can use tools, create tools, and solve complex puzzles that involve multiple steps.

In one famous experiment, a crow used a series of tools to extract food from a tube, showing their ability to plan ahead. Crows also have excellent memories and can recognize individual human faces.

Octopuses

Credit: Diane Picchiottino

Octopuses are escape artists. Famous for escaping closed tanks, unscrewing jars from the inside, and easily navigating complex mazes, these genius invertebrates challenge what we understand as non-human intelligence.

Their large brains and complex nervous systems enable impressive spatial learning and navigation, helping them thrive as nimble predators.

Orcas

Credit: Thomas Lipke

Also known as killer whales, orcas are highly intelligent animals known for their complex cooperative hunting techniques. They work together to catch prey, using coordinated strategies that can even involve creating waves to knock seals off ice chunks.

Their communication is incredibly sophisticated, and they even have regional dialects.

African Grey Parrots

Credit: Tolga Ahmetler

African Grey Parrots are famous for their ability to mimic human speech, but their intelligence goes far beyond vocal mimicry. They can associate words with meanings, use them in context, and even form simple sentences.

In research studies, African Greys have even demonstrated an understanding of abstract concepts such as shape, color, and number.

Ants

Credit: Akbar Nemati

While isolated individuals are not particularly intelligent, ants have a unique form of collective intelligence that allows entire colonies to perform highly complex tasks way beyond the capability of a single ant.

Their intricate nests and structures are proof of this, with some species even practicing a form of farming by cultivating fungi.

Pigs

Credit: Crispin Jones

Pigs are often overlooked in discussions of intelligence, but they are actually one of the smartest animals. They have demonstrated the ability to learn and perform tasks that require reasoning and memory.

Even more, in some studies pigs have been shown to outperform dogs in cognitive tests, indicating their high level of problem-solving abilities.

Squid

Credit: Karl Callwood

Squids, particularly the giant and Humboldt varieties, are highly intelligent creatures. They solve puzzles, navigate mazes, and communicate with others using changes in skin color and patterns.

Some squid species show remarkable learning flexibility, even mimicking the behavior of other animals to escape or deter predators.

Pen to screen

From A to B: 10 movies centered around the world of writers and words

Published on March 11, 2025

Credit: Rafaela Biazi

A script may be constructed in words, but it is not a book. At least not in the common sense of the term. That is why it can sometimes be hard to translate a great book into a great movie. Likewise, expressing onscreen the struggles of writing is never an easy task. A few notable exceptions exist, where the passion, the work, the loneliness, and the hardships endured by those who immerse themselves in the world of prose and poetry, are vividly depicted. The following ten are movies that manage to successfully translate those same things. If you haven’t seen any of these, we encourage you to do so: The experience will be a rewarding and inspiring one.

Dead Poets Society

Credit: Alex Batchelor

The movie that brought a whole new fame level to the Latin phrase Carpe Diem (seize the day), Dead Poets Society was a blockbuster that no one saw coming when it came out in 1989.

Starred by Robin Williams as an English teacher who inspires his students through teaching poetry at a fictional elite boarding school, Dead Poets Society received many accolades, including Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. It remains a classic to this day.

Misery

Credit: Fabian Mardi

A movie based on a book about a writer who is kidnapped by a fan and forced to rewrite one of his books, Misery is a quintessential Stephen King story. The psychological thriller film starred James Caan and Kathy Bates and was released in 1990 to highly positive reviews and box office success.

Misery manages to capture the deep anxiety and horror of a person who realizes that he is utterly helpless and in the hands of a disturbed individual, far away from society. Stephen King himself has stated that Misery is one of his top ten favorite film adaptations.

Capote

Credit: CK Hicks

Capote is a movie sometimes more remembered for the actor who played the starring role (and did a fantastic, Academy Award-winning job), Philip Seymour Hoffman, than for the movie itself. But it actually is a great film.

This biographical drama is about Truman Capote, the American novelist, and follows the events during the writing of Capote's 1965 nonfiction book In Cold Blood. The film became a box office success and received acclaim from critics.

Finding Forrester

Credit: Rachel Martin

Every story about a recluse writer is probably going to be compared to the real-life story of J.D. Salinger and this is not the exception. Finding Forrester is a 2000 American drama film in which, a teenager is invited to attend a prestigious private high school. By chance, Jamal befriends a reclusive writer, William Forrester, through whom he refines his writing talent.

The writer is played by Sean Connery, who later acknowledged that the inspiration for his role was indeed Salinger.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Credit: David Lusvardi

As delirious as this movie is, it is a brilliant representation of the actual book and its writing style. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was released in 1998 and is based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name.

The film, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro as Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo respectively, details the duo's journey through Las Vegas as their initial journalistic intentions devolve into an exploration of the city under the influence of psychoactive substances.

Barfly

Credit: jules a.

Presented as a semi-autobiography of American poet and author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles, Barfly is a 1987 black comedy that starred Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.

The movie was scripted by Bukowski himself, who later published a longer version of the script as a novel, called Hollywood.

Ask the Dust

Credit: Ruth Durbin

The previously mentioned Charles Bukowski was a big fan of John Fante, the man who wrote the book on which Ask the Dust is based. This romantic drama film was almost entirely shot in South Africa, even though it portrays Los Angeles.

The movie and the book depict the life of John Fante’s alter ego, Arturo Bandini, as a young struggling writer living in motels and trying to get his works published.

Quills

Credit: Mitchell Lawler

Inspired by the life and works of the Marquis de Sade, Quills is a fiction film based on the final years of the Marquis's incarceration in the insane asylum at Charenton. The movie starred Geoffrey Rush as de Sade and Kate Winslet as laundress Madeleine "Maddie" LeClerc.

In the film, the Marquis continues to write prolifically even when all writing equipment is taken from him, resorting to using his bed sheets and his own blood as ink.

Barton Fink

Credit: Jakob Owens

Another film about a young writer trying to make it in Los Angeles, Barton Fink was released in 1991 with John Turturro in the title role. The Coen brothers' movie was written when they were experiencing writer’s block during the production of another script.

Barton Fink depicts the writing process, labor conditions in creative industries, and the relationship between intellectuals and regular people. The main characters are supposedly based on writers Clifford Odets and William Faulkner.

Adaptation

Credit: Nathan DeFiesta

The last entry on our list is a 2002 comedy-drama film based on director Charlie Kaufman’s struggles to adapt Susan Orlean's 1998 nonfiction book The Orchid Thief while suffering from writer's block.

The movie featured Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper in the leading roles and received widespread acclaim for their performances as well as for the direction, screenplay, and humor.