[interfixus]

Rats have played smarter tricks on me than any other animals I've seen. Sophisticated stuff involving quite precise guessing as to what my next steps would be. Call it theory of mind if you like. My dog is smarter in a generalised way, but boy can you do interesting things with a brain the size of a pea.

But the octopusses. The most fascinating part is not really their level of intelligence per se, but that it has evolved from scratch completely independent from us vertebrates. Bona fide aliens in our own backyard. Deep lessons on what converges and what doesn't.

[neom]

I've had pet rats most of my life and they're so smart. They are cunning and manipulative for sure, they're so good at learning my behaviors and acting accordingly. Their food motivation is really crazy, check out what this lady has managed to get her rats to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA

[ClassyJacket]

I saw a video recently of a rat setting off a trap with a stick:

https://youtu.be/luiXzz5myIk