Ravens were recently found to have a capability for planning that parallels that of great apes and even surpasses the capability of a four-year-old child. As the animal kingdom is full of intelligent creatures, presented here are also other animals whose capabilities sometimes go unnoticed.

Ravens Can Plan For The Future

A recent study by a pair of researchers from the Lund University of Sweden revealed that ravens are in fact capable of planning for the future. In their four experiments, the researchers noted that the birds showed incredible planning abilities in the sense that they were able to make choices that consider future events outside of their immediate sensory context.

Similarly, the ravens also proved that they are capable of self-control when researchers presented them with the choice of either an immediate reward or a tool which would allow them to gain an even bigger reward with a little more effort.

Intelligence In The Animal Kingdom

Animals are pretty intelligent, and we only get to know a little more of their smarts with every experiment or test carried out. Apart from Ravens, here are a few other animals with incredible intelligence and skills.

Squirrels

Yes, they're cute and sure they're fluffy. But did you know that squirrels are also pretty smart? The next time anyone walks into a room and don't even remember why they're there, maybe they could be reminded of how gray squirrels actually remember where thousands — yes, thousands — of nuts are buried for months at a time.

In fact, they are even able to trick possible thieves by acting like they're burying nuts when they're actually hiding a nut somewhere else if they know that they're being watched. If that's not enough, recent research also showed that squirrels have the capability to quickly solve a problem even if the last time they encountered it was two years before the current encounter.

Pigs

According to a 2015 study, pigs are actually pretty smart. Aside from the fact that they are capable of learning the concept of mirror reflections in just mere hours at just six weeks of age, they are also able to show empathy, understand emotions, solve puzzles, learn simple symbolic language, and even have best friends.

Octopus

This one is pretty obvious. Octopi are so smart that it's almost creepy. Aside from the fact that they are able to physically manipulate their soft bodies in order to open jars or fit into tiny spaces in order to escape, they just have immense intelligence that humans are probably just beginning to unlock.

In a German aquarium, an octopus named Otto even threw rocks at the glass in order to spray water onto the overhead lamps to short-circuit them because they were too bright. That's nothing, however, to the latest development. As it turns out, cephalopods such as octopi, cuttlefish, and squids are capable of actually rewriting their DNA in order to adapt to their environments.

Elephants

Elephant brains are the biggest among land animals, with their cortex regions having as many neurons as the human brain. They are self-aware, emphatic, and can recognize themselves in mirrors. They are social animals that can show compassion and communicate with each other with the use of seismic signals.

Elephants also have impressive memories. Not only are they able to remember trails for many years, they also remember pals even after years of not seeing each other.