It is a constant debate between cat and dog lovers, which animal is the smarter one, each feeling their respective one. Now scientists have put an end to the prolonging question by analyzing the outer layers of the brains of several animals including the common pitched rivals dogs and cats. Well, dog lovers you'll may just want to cheer up as you have the smarter beings. The other animals which were compared along with cats and dogs were ferret, banded mongoose, racoon, striped hyena, lion, and brown bear. This study was actually aimed at finding if traditional hunters have more neurons, indicating a stronger brain power.
The number of brain cells could determine which of the two- cats or dogs is smarter and the larger number goes to the dogs. Scientists found cats have approximately 250 million neurons, while dogs have more than twice as much, about 530 million neurons. "I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience," Suzana Herculano-Houzel, the neuroscientist who developed the method for the measurement.
The findings also stressed the fact that dogs are thus more capable of doing complex things than cats. Your dogs can definitely understand more commands as compared to cats. Dog owners anyway believe the loyalty and the ability that you can train them works in favour of the dog's intelligence. While cat owners believe their pets are smarter because of these inabilities. While there are still discrepancies whether the cell number is the right way to determine the 'brain power' there will be further research on comparisons between herbivores and carnivores. It is even said that dogs may have the most number of neurons than any other carnivore. It also brings in the angle if pets are smarter than wild? Right now, let us leave the conclusion between dogs being the totally smart ones in comparison to cats.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 19, 2018 04:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).