Introduction Being smart can be very helpful People can be smart in school They can be smart at their jobs They might show their intelligence by doing puzzles or solving problems Animals can be smart too If an animal is smart it doesn’t mean they can solve problems in school Instead animals use their intelligence to survive in the natural world Intelligent animals can find food or make tools They can figure out problems Some animals show their intelligence by being great at remembering things Being smart can give animals a better chance of staying alive in a dangerous world We’ve put together a list of the Top Ten Smartest Animals Take a look and see why these animals are the smartest creatures on Planet Earth 4
And the Winners Are Here are our choices for the Top 10 Smartest Animals Turn the pages to find out more about each of these smart creatures 10 10 The Squirrel 9 The Raccoon 8 The Rat 7 The Crow 6 The Pig 5 The Octopus 4 The Elephant 7 3 The Orangutan 2 The Chimpanzee 1 The Bottlenose Dolphin 3 5
10 The Squirrel You might think squirrels are just cute but pesky creatures running around your backyard or the local park Think again Squirrels are actually quite smart They are especially clever when it comes to finding food There are more than 265 different species of squirrel around the world These clever creatures live on every continent except Australia and Antarctica 6
Squirrels eat nuts and seeds These foods are easy to find during most of the year but not during the winter So squirrels bury lots of nuts and seeds all over the ground Then during the winter they dig up this stored food and have a tasty meal Squirrels are able to remember where they buried all these food supplies weeks or even months after they hid them Squirrels also use their brains to fool other animals Sometimes a squirrel pretends to bury food in one spot The squirrel knows other animals will see it and try to dig up the buried food Surprise The squirrel has buried its food somewhere else and the joke is on the thief Squirrels communicate with each other by making chirping sounds They also twitch their tails to send danger signals Smart Fact Smart Fact 7