Posted on 11/30/2017 2:24:06 PM PST by JimSEA
There's a new twist to the perennial argument about which is smarter, cats or dogs.
It has to do with their brains, specifically the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex: the "little gray cells" associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior -- all considered hallmarks of intelligence.
The first study to actually count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, including cats and dogs, has found that dogs possess significantly more of them than cats.
"In this study, we were interested in comparing different species of carnivorans to see how the numbers of neurons in their brains relate to the size of their brains, including a few favorite species including cats and dogs, lions and brown bears," said Associate Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences Suzana Herculano-Houzel, who developed the method for accurately measuring the number of neurons in brains.
(Carnivora is a diverse order that consists of 280 species of mammals all of which have teeth and claws that allow them to eat other animals.)
The results of the study are described in a paper titled "Dogs have the most neurons, though not the largest brain: Trade-off between body mass and number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of large carnivoran species" accepted for publication in the open access journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Having owned both, cats never seemed all that bright to me. I can understand liking them better than dogs as animals or pets, but saying they’re more intelligent than dogs seems absurd.
I’ve never seen a “seeing-eye”cat helping a blind person....
Maybe that’s to compensate? Just saying.
Yeah, but would a cat wag its tail and lick you all over after you opened the car trunk that you had locked it into for hours? :-)
Dogs may have bigger brains, but cats have (ahem) other appendages that are larger. (I hope I cleaned that up sufficiently.) Years ago we brought a 3 year-old cat into our home where we had a large dog. She was maybe 8 lbs., and she walked right up to this 70 lb. bruiser and slugged him once in the chops (no claws out or anything). He was cowed by her for the remainder of their days together. It always makes me smile to think of her bravado.
Loved the animation.
Our cat could open a door by jumping up and holding on to the door knob until it opened.
Most cats seem far closer to wild than most dogs. They’re wiley and their prey behavior is cute at times, mistaken for play. Many dogs are not all that wiley and not all that high prey, so they can seem rather goofy. But, they do know their people and they do understand language from their people, to the point of having to spell anything they’re enthused about and they’ll eventually figure that out, too. Dogs are also highly emotional. Cats really can’t be described this way. That’s the difference.
I am tired of all these crap studies trying to find out which one is smarter. I love both cats and dogs and have two dogs and three cats in my household. They all are quite smart and I love them all.
So in other words you have no fun with your dog you just like to boss him around :-) and I respond to 30 of my cats commands LOL
No it would go to the cops and figure out a way how to tell on me :)
I agree. I have trained a lot of dogs from protection/bitework to bird dogs (English pointers) and hounds. There are a lot of dogs that have a spoken vocabulary in the hundreds. Cats, just one, the call to the food bowl.
Dogs are capable of leaning to perform myriad tasks and jobs.
My Labrador Retriever has never barked at the moon. But she will bark if you try and break into my house. And she retrieves the morning paper from the end of the driveway. I want to see your cat do either.
Well, I wish the twenty or so dogs that live around me had the manners of your Labrador. And had owners as responsible as you apparently are. They bark constantly, for hours and hours every day. I don't even understand how that is physically possible
OK. Let's see YOU after I flop a giant spider on you. I bet you'd blow a hole in the roof and keep on going!
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