- [Narrator] Animals,
who doesn't love 'em? But have you ever seen an animal do something so intelligent, so human, that it makes you question
everything you thought you knew? If not, you'd better strap in, from orangutans donning
suits to dogs driving cars, it's time to take a look at
some moments of animal genius that are guaranteed to amaze you! (upbeat music) Monkey see. When you think of clever animals, you probably go straight to primates. They're like poster children
for animal intelligence! However, although apes like chimpanzees are our closest relatives, monkeys are also capable of some pretty dang impressive feats. This one in particular has recognized the importance of good dental hygiene: Aw! See, monkeys in the wild
will imitate one another in order to survive. If a monkey sees one of its family feeding from a particular tree, it'll assume that tree to
be safe and eat from it too! So, monkeys kept as pets will often imitate their
human owners' behavior! This cute critter's name is Eli. He's a pet monkey living in Texas, and because he's seen mom
and dad brushing their teeth, he's adopted that behavior himself! Pretty crazy, right? That said, if there's one thing I wasn't expecting to see
a monkey do, it's this: (monkey chatters) Yes, this is a capuchin, wearing a diaper, using a vending machine. And that's a sentence I
didn't think I'd ever say. The monkey lives at
Japan's Tohoku Safari Park and has obviously seen
his fair share of visitors grabbing themselves drinks! I'd probably have kept the change though. Indeed, capuchins are some of
the most intelligent monkeys in the world, with a great knack for
learning and remembering, leading many to land
starring roles in movies! But outside of Hollywood, they're known for their love of tools. Take this absolute renegade: Jeez! This capuchin lives in a Chinese zoo, but apparently doesn't like it too much. The solution? Sharpen a rock and use
it for an escape attempt! It looks like the little
guy hadn't been expecting such a dramatic smash though. Ha, the truly amazing thing
is that he must've figured out an escape method all of his own accord, no zookeeper would've demonstrated it! Hopefully he's doing fine now and hasn't felt the need to get up to any monkey business again. (air whooshing) Drama queen. Nearly a third of adults
suffer from ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes. I, may or may not be one of them. But, what about snakes that
have phobias of their own? This is the hognose, a
strange little serpent found in the eastern US with a very clever defense mechanism. If a predator gives him a
scare, he reacts like this: (bright music) Yep, the hognose will
theatrically fake its own death with a performance
that's equal parts Oscar and Razzie worthy! But this little reptile is venomous, so why doesn't it just attack? Well, although the venom works on the small amphibians and birds that the hognose eats, it's useless against its larger predators, like raccoons. So, if threatened, the slippery snake resorts to theatrics instead. Hungry hunters much prefer
live prey where possible because scavenging from the dead carries the risk of
catching a nasty disease. So, if they think the
hognose is hiss-tory, they're likely to leave it alone! And why don't you prove you're smarter than the average snake and hit those like and
subscribe buttons down below? That way you'll never have to miss another fascinating fact again! All finished? Awesome! Let's dive right into some
more genius animals then. Canny cats. If you're anything like me, you've got a fuzzy feline
sat next to you right now, staring at you with a perpetually
disappointed expression. Admittedly, my cat
might just hate my face, but there's another reason
they act so snobbishly. Despite rarely being
associated with intelligence, they can actually be exceptionally smart. Not Tom & Jerry smart, you probably won't see
one hunting down mice with a shotgun anytime soon,
but they're still clever! Back in August 2022, an
American family found this out in hilarious fashion. They'd just moved into a
new house in New York City, but their cat Lily apparently
didn't like it there and ran away! This is surprisingly common
for cats moving to new places. Less common however, is
what happened a week later. (cat meows) Lily not only found her way back home, but went directly for the Ring doorbell to ensure her family knew she was back! It even sounds like she
meows "Mom" at one point: (cat meows) Aww, see, this is why I'm a cat person. Is there anything they do that isn't cute? Well, actually, there might be: According to the owners, this clever kitty learnt to
use the bathroom all by itself! Which is insanely brainy, yes, but I can't help but think back to that teeth brushing capuchin. Did our feline friend learn
by watching his owners every time they went number two? I can barely go if there's
someone waiting outside, never mind intensely staring
at me from across the room! (air whooshing) A whale of a time. Though cats generally aren't
known for their intelligence, whales are widely regarded as some of the most
intelligent creatures on Earth. Beluga whales are an
especially striking species, capable of great empathy and able to learn super quickly. Plus, they're cute as buttons! This clip went viral in 2019, showing off just how smart
these bubbly belugas can be: This friendly guy fetches the rugby ball, plays around with it
a bit, and returns it! Aw, the clip took the internet by storm and was viewed by millions of people. After doing some digging though, I've found out it doesn't
tell the whole story. The beluga in question was identified as one named Hvaldimir, first found by fishermen in 2019. Back then, the whale was malnourished and wearing a tight harness
with a camera on it, labeled 'Equipment St Petersburg'. Ah, pretty weird, right? The harness was removed, and the whale fed before being set loose, but the odd encounter led to
all manner of crazy theories. Some people are insistent it was being used by the
Russian government as a spy! I don't know about that, but Russia does train military dolphins, so it might not be too much of a stretch. Regardless, Hvaldimir's
ball fetching may be cute, but he really just needs to be left alone to re-adjust to life in the wild. Fortunately, some kind
souls have set up a charity called One Whale to help monitor and look out for our little buddy. God speed Hvaldimir, you
genius sea mammal you. So like us. Apes are humankind's
closest living relatives. Naturally, this makes them amongst the most intelligent animals
on the planet, and it shows. When a zookeeper
accidentally left his broom inside a chimpanzee enclosure, this simian knew exactly what to do: Damn, at this stage, you could probably just
fire the zookeepers! I'm sure old chimpy here
would do a grand job of taking care of himself. He's not just randomly sweeping, he clearly understands
the purpose is to clean. The mess-aware ape was
even seen dipping the broom into water like a mop! Amazing! Chimpanzees share a whopping
99% of their DNA with us, so it's unsurprising they pick
up on our behaviors quickly. At the Welsh Mountain Zoo, guests were amazed when one
of the chimps communicated in a very human manner. This guy's seen humans pointing
and adopted it himself! Whoever said apes love bananas
obviously got it wrong. It's pretty obvious they'd rather be sat sipping from a cool
bottle of Mountain Dew! Or, at least, licking it up
from a crack in the window. But as clever as chimps are, orangutans are also a strong contender for most intelligent ape. And as a couple of visitors to a private zoo in Dubai
found, they also have style: - [Speaker] Oh, he's
taking your jacket off. Take it off, help him. Help him, take it off. No, he might put your coat on, bro. - [Speaker] It's fine.
Let him take it off. - [Speaker] What's he doing? - [Speaker] That's sick.
- [Speaker] Oh my God. - [Speaker] Oh, that is gone. It's gonna put on, bro? - [Speaker] No, he's not gonna put it on. - [Speaker] Bro, he's
gonna put it on, bro. - [Speaker] No, he's not gonna put- (visitors laughing) - [Speaker] Nah, nah. - [Speaker] Oh my God. - [Speaker] Yo, they're humans. - [Speaker] Wow. Oh my God.
He's trying to take it off? - [Speaker] Oh, he's about to button. Nah. That is a legend. - [Narrator] Dang, that's
one fancy looking young man! These guys can express a
whole range of emotions, and have great memory recall,
and can even nail basic math, so it shouldn't be too surprising to see one popping on a jacket. I think this is way
more than a simple case of mimicry though. I mean, we share 97% of
our DNA with orangutans, and that's gotta mean something, right? Maybe the little dude
just wanted to fit in! Displays of intelligence
and comprehension like these are undeniably impressive, but I can't help but think
of "Planet of the Apes." Especially after seeing
this worrying video: Alright, all right, this was
just marketing for a movie. The apes aren't gonna be
taking over anytime soon. But I had you for a second, didn't I? (air whooshing) Beary friendly. Now, you shouldn't get close to bears. They're big and dangerous
and they will eat you. That said, they're also super
smart, and surprisingly cute: - [Speaker] You are so lazy. - [Narrator] These bears live in a Japanese rehabilitation park, and they're not just waving to say hi, they do it because they've
learned that being cute makes people more likely
to give them treats! So, it only makes sense
to turn on the charm if it leads to some extra honey. Bears need to eat a lot during
the end of the summer season to prepare themselves for hibernation, a period where they eat nothing at all. So when they need to pack on the pounds, they'll ask humans for a handout. Now that said, if you live
somewhere wild bears are found, don't feed them! It can encourage the big
furballs to rely on people rather than fending for themselves, and also put you in danger of, well, becoming the food. (shudders) I can't even bear the thought. (air whooshing) Rat rescuers. This is a giant pouched rat. These African natives aren't
like other rats though, oh no. A certain group of them
have dedicated their lives to saving others! Seriously, a non-profit group named APOPO sends these rodents to
a special boot camp, where they're trained to be super rats. Yeah, you heard right. Over the course of nine months, these not-so-little guys undergo an intense regime. Using their incredible sense of smell, the rats are taught to seek
out unexploded landmines so their human partners can disarm them. Every time they successfully find the TNT, they're rewarded with a banana. But that's not all they're trained to do. The heroic rats are also
used to locate survivors of natural disasters like earthquakes. Equipped with little backpacks containing a microphone and a camera, the rats set off into the disaster zone and sniff out any potential survivors. The human rescuers watch their progress, and if they find any survivors, they can communicate with
them via the microphones! The rats have even been trained to pull a switch on their backpacks that shares their location
when they find a survivor. Insane! But hold on, why doesn't
APOPO use, I dunno, dogs? Well, giant pouched rats are easily intelligent enough for the job and have a comparable sense of smell, but unlike dogs, they're relatively small and can squeeze into hard-to-reach places. Plus, they can scour an area
the size of a tennis court in just 30 minutes and detect TNT in amounts
as small as 29 grams, that's less than the weight
of an average light bulb! Man, if you still don't
like rodents at this point, then rats, I don't know
what else to tell you. (air whooshing) Escape-topus. My mom always said that I had a big brain, but I've also got an
abnormally large head, so it makes sense. Octopuses on the other hand
have the largest brains in relation to their
bodies of any invertebrate. What's more, as well as their main brain, they've got a miniature brain
in each of their eight arms. Yeah, seriously. This means they can use
them all independently of one another and with
great speed and intricacy. The smarty pants have even
been observed using tools, solving puzzles, and even
remembering specific people. And all this intellect
comes in mighty handy if they ever want to, say,
escape from a closed glass jar. (bright music) Damn! It takes the octopus less than a minute to analyze the situation,
understand how the lid works, and remove it, allowing it to escape. That's seriously
impressive for any animal, let alone one without hands! But who needs hands when you've
got eight arms, nine brains, and the flexibility of a gymnast whose just had a full body massage? (air whooshing) The Hairy Houdini. If you can cast your
mind back a few minutes, you'll remember I said orangutans are some of the most intelligent
animals in the world. Yet, one orangutan born back
in 1971 at the San Diego Zoo would prove to be so incredible
he'd become world famous. His name? Ken Allen. When he was young, Ken would
unscrew the bolts of his cage to explore his nursery and play at night. Even more amazingly, he'd put it all back together
before his keepers arrived the next morning! This kind of behavior
would go on to define Ken. As a young adult, he
shared his first enclosure with another male named Otis. Ken and Otis didn't get along at all, so keepers moved Ken
into a separate enclosure to prevent fighting. This enclosure had very high walls and a moat surrounding it. Shortly after this, and
during zoo opening hours, Ken got past the moat, scaled the large walls of his
new enclosure and broke out, before wandering around and viewing the other
animals with the visitors! The orangutan was friendly and relaxed, and when staff eventually
caught up with him, he returned peacefully to his cage. After this, Ken shot
into the media spotlight and was dubbed "The Hairy Houdini." People would visit the San Diego Zoo just to see the sneaky primate! To avoid any further mischief, the zoo made the walls of Ken's
enclosure four feet taller. It wasn't enough. Just a few weeks later, Ken
made yet another daring escape. Once again, he casually wandered the zoo. This time, however, he returned
to his previous enclosure, and was found throwing rocks
at his old nemesis, Otis! Ha! The zookeepers eventually
caught up with him and returned him to his own enclosure, but now they were getting
really exasperated. Ken was put under constant supervision, and to avoid detection, the staff watching him went
undercover as visitors! To be doubly sure, they also
installed an electric fence. Finally, it seemed Ken had been bested. But two years later, a technical fault caused
the moat to dry up, something Ken immediately
took advantage of. After walking through the dry moat, he hoisted himself through
a previously hidden gap in the enclosure and
made yet another escape! Once more he wandered the zoo, posing for photos with visitors, and once more he was captured
and returned to his enclosure. Now, to try and distract
Ken from escaping again, staff put some female
orangutans in there with him. You know what Ken did? He taught them how to escape as well! After the escaped females
were brought back, the zoo spent another
$45,000 on security measures, and this, at last, led The Hairy Houdini to abandon his dreams of
freedom and settle down. But not before making a name for himself as the sneakiest primate that ever lived! (air whooshing) Brainy birds. Calling someone "birdbrained" is basically calling them stupid, but it really shouldn't be! Some birds are anything but stupid, and gray parrots are amongst
the smartest of the lot. As well as being able
to learn human speech, they can basically count
and solve problems. All this means they've been the subject of lots of scientific experiments: - He knows about a
dozen different objects. He does know five colors. - [Parrot] Orange. - Orange. Good boy. - [Narrator] Pretty amazing, right? Animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg has been working with African
gray parrots for decades. Her most famous however
was a male called Alex. So, what made Alex so special? Well, he was the first, and only, animal to have ever asked an
existential question. Seriously. One day he looked at himself in the mirror and asked Irene what color he was! So, this guy was apparently
self-aware. Jeez! But gray parrots aren't the
only bird super geniuses! Lovebirds are another type of parrot, and it turns out they're so smart you can train them to play basketball: (bright music) These avian eggheads have
learnt they need to pop the ball into the opposing team's hoop to score! Because lovebirds are so intelligent, they get bored easily and need lots of cognitive stimulation. So, learning and playing a sport is perfect entertainment for them! But that doesn't mean you
can't put them to work at the same time! Check out this incredible parrot who's learnt how to sort and
tidy items into separate boxes: Man, I could do with one of those. Though, the way he shut that door makes me think he might not
enjoy the activity so much! Alongside parrots, one of the smartest groups
of birds are corvids, the same family crows
and ravens belong to: This is Korppi the raven, and she's showing off exactly
what I'm talking about. Corvids can use tools,
solve complex puzzles, and even remember individual humans! In fact, a recent study found that ravens as young as four months old are just as intelligent
in some areas as apes! That's bananas. Yet, of all the crazy clips I've seen, it's not a parrot or a corvid that takes the prize for brainiest moment. It's actually a jungle myna, which is a type of starling! Believe it or not,
starlings are super clever, and as well as being able
to talk like parrots, they can also learn to do this: (bright music) That's right, this bird is a thief! It's been trained to collect cash, and judging by that drawer,
it's very good at it. Alright, so it's not actually a thief. It picks up lost cash from the floor rather than stealing it. But I wonder, if it's capable of that, could you train a few of
these guys to, I dunno, rob a bank or something? Hmm, it's tempting, sure, but we don't want our avian
amigos to become jailbirds, do we? (laughs) (sighs) I'll see myself out. (air whooshing) Clever canines. Dogs, man's best friend. As well as being oh-so-loving, they can learn hundreds of words, perform all kinds of tricks, and are even capable of basic math. It's not done purely
for our benefit either; dogs thrive when given roles or tasks! They want to earn those
treats and belly rubs. Even without training though, a dog will improvise if
left to their own devices: Yup, nobody taught Zippy here how to play a solo game of fetch; the resourceful hound figured
it out all by himself! The result is equal parts
adorable and mesmerizing. Well, he'll sleep well tonight! If Zippy had been able to
straight up tell his owner he wanted to play though, he might never have had to
puzzle it out by himself. Unfortunately, dogs can't speak, but they can learn to
communicate in wildly human ways. Like this cute rottweiler: - [Speaker] You want broccoli? Broccoli. You want cheese? Want a carrot? No? You want cheese? - [Narrator] Wow, nonverbal communication is integral for animals, and dogs are no exception. What is exceptional here is that this dog has learnt to mimic human communication, without any training! He's just been around his owners
long enough to work it out. Seeing dogs do people
things always entertains and amazes me. But just how "human" can our
canine companions really get? Well, it turns out, very: (bright music) Meet Secret, an Australian shepherd dog who had some crazy talent. Her equally talented owner, Mary, trained her from a young age and the two developed an inseparable bond, one that led Secret to learn all manner of incredible skills. From the fun to the practical. Secret had a huge repertoire of talents, and I mean huge. She even trusted Mary enough
to carry out a trust fall! Aww! Heartbreakingly, Secret
passed away back in May 2022. I'm not crying, you are. But the legacy of this
genius pooch continues in the form of Mary's new pup, Promise. And Mary's wasted no time getting her training program underway! I'm sure under her wing
Promise will become a super dog worthy of Secret's legacy. And for all Mary's amazing
mentoring, however, there's one thing she doesn't teach. Just take a look at this: (bright music) No, you aren't losing it. New Zealand charity, the
SPCA, have actually managed to teach this model student,
Monty, and many other dogs, to drive! The doggy drivers are first
taught to push buttons and change gears outside of a vehicle, before moving on to a dummy cart where they learn to steer. After seven weeks of training, the pooches are finally ready
to get behind the real wheel. Not on actual roads, of course, they stick to a training track, but I'm still absolutely
floored by this one. It's like something
straight out of a cartoon! Now, why do the SPCA dedicate
so much time to this though? It's not like we're gonna
see barking taxi drivers anytime soon. Well, the SPCA rescues abandoned dogs, so by demonstrating how
incredibly intelligent the poor puppers are, they hope to attract more potential owners to rehabilitate them. A noble cause! And it really does show that with enough positive
reinforcement like treats, the clever canines can do almost anything. They'll even do your shopping for you! This is DuoDuo, a helpful little dog who goes to the market every day to buy her owner's groceries. She knows exactly where to go and even makes sure to wait for change! (bright music) Man, if I had a dog that
went shopping for me, I'd never leave the house again! As much of a hero as DuoDuo is though, it's time to take a look
at a real life saver: This kid lost his ball in the
pond, and his dog noticed. As soon as the young boy tries
to get closer to fish it out, the dog senses danger and
pulls him away to safety! Whoa. But he's not done, oh no. Wow, I don't know what's more impressive: the dexterity with which this
goodest of boys used the net, or the fact that he use it at all! Then again, the dog in
question is a German Shepherd, one of the most intelligent
dog breeds in the world. They're used as everything
from police dogs to guide dogs and it's not hard to see why! That was one of the most
impressive animal feats I've ever seen. I'm afraid that brings
this video to a close! Which of those clips did you
think was the most impressive? And has your pet ever
done anything so clever it made you do a double take? Let me know down in the comments below, and thanks for watching!
