Smart Animal

Name: Kanzi
Species: Bonobo
Home: Great Ape Trust of Iowa, Des Moines
Smarts: Acquired language spontaneously; makes tools at level of early humans.
Young Kanzi began picking uplanguage on his own—observing scientists trying to train his mother. At 27, the bonobo "talks" using more than 360 keyboard symbols and understands thousands of spoken words. He forms sentences, followsnovel instructions, and crafts stone tools—altering his technique depending on a stone's hardness. He even plays piano (he once jammed with Peter Gabriel). Lodge us together with bonobos for 15generations, says Great Ape Trust's William Fields, "and the bonobos would become less bonobo, the people less human. We aren't really that different." Case in point, Fields is now analyzing Kanzi'svocalizations: "We think he may be speaking English words, just too fast and high-pitched for us to decode."

Species: African Cichlid
Home: Standford University, Stanford, CA
Smarts: Determinessocial rank through observation, a step on the way to logical reasoning.
In certain African cichlid fish, males watch others fight to size up their competition, and females, when fertile, sidle up to themost active territorial males. Meanwhile, subordinate males may adopt female colors to sneak food from another male's territory. "They can do all this at eight weeks old, with brains the size of asmall pea," says Russell Fernald, who studies how social dealings alter the fish's brain cells.

honeybees
Honeybees have long amazed scientists with their social behaviors (dancing out directions toa food source, working in tandem with thousands of hive mates, taking on specialized jobs within and outside the hive). Also remarkable are their complex memories: Bees can learn and memorize localroutes, landmarks, and when different flowers bloom—allowing them to visit the same spot at the same time the next day, improving their foraging efficiency.

Prairie dogs
This little face fronts a...