We tend to measure animal cleverness by how much it resembles our own — but some of the most remarkable minds on Earth are built on entirely different plans. This episode explores intelligence in octopuses, crows, dolphins and more, and asks how we can even test for it.

You’ll come away understanding why intelligence isn’t a single ladder with humans on top, how animals as different as an octopus and a crow can be so clever, and why judging other minds is one of the hardest things science tries to do.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?; Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds; the research of the University of Cambridge comparative cognition gro ...