Intelligence of a Pigeon
Pigeons are super smart and amazing. They have been known to pass many intelligence tests other animals couldn’t. Let’s look at a few of the amazing things that pigeons can do…
Pigeons Can Categorize
In one study, pigeons were actually able to categorize 128 photos into 16 categories. These pictures were of both natural and human made things showing how impressive their cognitive abilities are (1).
Able to Pass the Mirror Test
Pigeons are able to recognize their reflection in a mirror as themselves. Although seemingly simple, many animals are unable to pass the mirror test making this quite the achievement (2).
Now I know my ABC's
Pigeons have the ability to learn the alphabet and are able to distinguish the 26 letters from one another (2).
Pigeons Can Distinguish Art
When trained pigeons were able to discriminate between color slides of Picassos and Monets. Without further training they were able to determine which of newly presented paintings were Monets and which were Picasso (3).
Citations:
1.AGNEW-IOWA, SARA. “Pigeons Are Smarter than You’d Think.” Futurity, 16 Feb. 2015, www.futurity.org/pigeons-intelligence-856552/.
2.“Amazing Facts about Pigeons: OneKindPlanet Animal Education & Facts.” OneKindPlanet, onekindplanet.org/animal/pigeon/.
3. Watanabe, S et al. “Pigeons’ discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso.” Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior vol. 63,2 (1995): 165-74. doi:10.1901/jeab.1995.63-165