Everybody knows someone with the memory of a goldfish or the grace of a boar, but it is important to note that we are animals too – and for the most part not that much smarter than our biological neighbours.

In fact, for thousands of years humans have placed themselves on a lofty intellectual pedestal above the rest of the animal kingdom, but growing evidence suggests we should come down a peg or two.

There is an ever-increasing mound of evidence that intelligence takes many forms in nature, and humanity is not chief of them all, according to experts in evolutionary biology.

“For millennia, all kinds of authorities - from religion to eminent scholars - have been repeating the same idea ad nauseam, that humans are exceptional by virtue that they are the smartest in the animal kingdom,” says Dr Arthur Saniotis, Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Adelaide’s School of Medical Sciences.

“However, science tells us that animals can have cognitive faculties that are superior to human beings.”

The belief that humans have superior intelligence stems from the Agricultural Revolution around 10,000 years ago; a time when people began producing cereals and domesticating other animals.

The movement gained momentum with the creation of organised religion, which placed human beings as the top species on Earth.

“The belief of human cognitive superiority became entrenched in human philosophy and sciences. Even Aristotle, probably the most influential of all thinkers, argued that humans were superior to other animals due to our exclusive ability to reason,” Dr Saniotis says.

As animal rights began to be recognised in the 19th century, he says drive of the Industrial Revolution set back any gains made in the awareness of other animals.

Professor Maciej Henneberg, a professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy from the School of Medical Sciences, says animals possess abilities that are misunderstood by humans.

“The fact that they may not understand us, while we do not understand them, does not mean our ‘intelligences’ are at different levels, they are just of different kinds. When a foreigner tries to communicate with us using an imperfect, broken, version of our language, our impression is that they are not very intelligent. But the reality is quite different,” Professor Henneberg says.

“Animals offer different kinds of intelligences which have been under-rated due to humans' fixation on language and technology. These include social and kinaesthetic intelligence. Some mammals, like gibbons, can produce a large number of varied sounds - over 20 different sounds with clearly different meanings that allow these arboreal primates to communicate across tropical forest canopy. The fact that they do not build houses is irrelevant to the gibbons.

“Many quadrupeds leave complex olfactory marks in their environment, and some, like koalas, have special pectoral glands for scent marking. Humans, with their limited sense of smell, can't even gauge the complexity of messages contained in olfactory markings, which may be as rich in information as the visual world,” he says.

Domestic pets also give close insight into mental abilities of mammals and birds.

“They can even communicate to us their demands and make us do things they want. The animal world is much more complex than we give it credit for,” he says.

It is possible that in the future the whole idea of ‘using’ other animals for the benefit of humans will seem cruel and unnecessary. We are still willing to allow the use and treatment of some animals that would never be allowed to befall a human – despite the fact that there is very little difference.

The following video shows the incredible abilities of the crow; though it also upholds the idea that intelligence must be considered in relation to human capabilities, which is misguided;