Or: given the same stimuli, dogs and cats will react differently, and those behaviors will be interpreted by humans as more or less intelligent depending on the behavior we favor.
Dogs probably have the evolutionary advantage on those tests because they were raised specifically as companions, active tools that we would hunt with. Cats were/are essentially residential pest control, a job that doesn’t require direct interaction with all of the other residents on a regular basis, but now that I’m actually thinking about it, probably does explain their “gifts” if you think of the gifts as proof of work/doing their job.
I digress. I adore cats, and you know how much they adore you when you walk in and are immediately greeted by two cats that want nothing more than to sit in your lap and purr ASAP, human bodily functions be damned. Our tests might show dogs to be more “intelligent”, but I’m skeptical of their accuracy and overall usefulness.
Dogs probably have the evolutionary advantage on those tests because they were raised specifically as companions, active tools that we would hunt with. Cats were/are essentially residential pest control, a job that doesn’t require direct interaction with all of the other residents on a regular basis, but now that I’m actually thinking about it, probably does explain their “gifts” if you think of the gifts as proof of work/doing their job.
I digress. I adore cats, and you know how much they adore you when you walk in and are immediately greeted by two cats that want nothing more than to sit in your lap and purr ASAP, human bodily functions be damned. Our tests might show dogs to be more “intelligent”, but I’m skeptical of their accuracy and overall usefulness.