Many of us have financial advisors and tax experts. In most cases, they are other humans, but what if we told you there are animals that we believe are smart enough to do your taxes?
Today, on World Wildlife Day, we wanted to tell you about which five animals out there in the wild are so smart, we think they might be able to take over and do the job your financial experts have been doing for 20+ years.
1. Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees can learn sign language. Not only can they learn sign language to understand it themselves, but they can perform signs to communicate with humans. This entry on our list makes a lot of sense considering the relatively small gap between apes and humans but still, it’s really quite impressive to think about just how intelligent a chimpanzee is.
2. Dolphins
The US has a history of training bottle-nose dolphins, as part of their Navy, to find explosive mines underwater. Although this should explain enough about the sheer intelligence and capability of these beautiful creatures, even more evidence of their intellect exists if you go to see them at a show or aquarium. These mammals do tricks, surf, race and spin as part of these shows and clearly, make for some of the smartest members of the animal kingdom.
3. Elephants
We all know elephants to be these large, lumbering animals with large trunks. The truth is, however, that they are much more than that. In accordance with their size, elephants have the largest brains of all land animals, which they put to good use. In fact, Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that African elephants can distinguish certain human differences such as age, purely by the sound of someone’s voice.
4. Pigeons
Sometimes, we all think that we can’t recognize the person we see in the mirror. Often after a period of time where we’ve gained a few pounds, we say to ourselves, “there’s no way the person in the mirror is me!”. This can also be true for pigeons, as these creatures that we largely just consider pests have been known to be able to recognize themselves in the mirror and are capable of learning many movements and actions in a similar way to dolphins like we talked about above. Pretty impressive, huh?
5. Rats
The typical subject of scientific experimentation, rats are also much more than just pests. In fact, these much-maligned (at least in Western society) rodents are so intelligent, they have been credited with detecting tuberculosis and sniffing out landmines. You might actually call these animals life-savers in a way, which seems crazy to say because, to a lot of the world, rats are just annoying creatures that cause us stress. Consider in the future that these are actually some of the smartest animals known to man, and it’s really quite incredible what they are capable of.
Alright, so here’s where we get to reality. Please don’t walk into your local pet store and ask for the animal that the employees think can do your taxes for you. Hire a professional for that instead, or if you’re looking for a way to get your child jump started on their financial literacy journey, check out Explorer Hop's personal finance programs.
With programs curated for children all the way from first to twelfth grade, our renowned programs and teachers can help your child get a head start on their path towards financial superstardom in their future.
Anyways, we hope you enjoyed reading a little about some of the smartest animals known to us as humans. We are humans, but many other animals are supremely intelligent members of our ecosystem, and we ought to be impressed and in awe of what they can do!
Happy World Wildlife Day, everyone!