The question has been debated since the domestication of dogs and cats:
Who's smarter?
Lucky for us, the fine folks at the University of Salford in Manchester (across the pond in England) took on that very question, in a very scientific manner. You can read their full report in the science journal Animal Cognition.
First, they look at the observable behaviors of a dog. Barking, scratching, nudging, and rolling over, are just a few of the behaviors the researchers found to be the ways dogs communicate with us. Researchers identified 47 gestures canines use to communicate, but have only been able to translate 19 of those gestures. Shockingly, dogs have 8 different gestures to communicate they want to be scratched and only 5 gestures to indicate they want food.
Below are the 19 canine gestures the researchers have been able to translate.
SCRATCH ME:
FEED ME:
PLAY WITH ME:
OPEN THE DOOR FOR ME:
As for the feline, only 17 gestures have been identified to communicate behavior. Most of their communications happen with their tails and ears.
A Cat's Tail
We've established that both cats and dogs communicate with us on some level. So let's have a look at what is going on behind the scenes, in the brain.
Researches have found a dog's brain is far more dense than a feline brain. So what does that mean exactly?
Both dogs and cats hunt, or at the very least have the instinct to hunt. So when it comes to hunting, it's all about the brain being efficient, and denser is better.
It's believed that dogs have about 530 million neurons calculating their behaviors while cats only have approximately 250 million. Researchers think this is why dogs can be trained and have the ability to "predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience,” according to neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel from Vanderbilt University.
We doubt any of the research is going to convince every dog or cat person which species is smarter, but we thought these fun facts would be helpful to add to the debate at the dinner table.