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Dive into the extraordinary capabilities of the animal kingdom and witness the amazing ways in which they navigate their surroundings and interact with the world around them.
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00:00Oh, capybaras. I bet your social media is flooded with these adorable creatures enjoying a hot bath,
00:06looking like they couldn't care less about the world's problems. Yeah, I get it.
00:10The world's largest rodents don't exactly look too sharp with that zen vibe going on,
00:16but they're actually pretty clever. Studies reveal they're even smarter than two-year-old kids
00:21and average dogs. The thing is, while dogs can be trained, capybaras are independent thinkers
00:27with their own unique way of doing things. So if you ask them to do a rollover, they'll probably
00:32think, oh, not again, and come up with their own quirky way to pull it off. Or they just might
00:38decide not to do it at all. Another thing that adds to their intelligence is their complex
00:44communication. Capybaras whistle when they sense danger, purr when they're happy, chirp when they're
00:50in a group, and even do teeth chattering when excited about food. The list goes on.
00:55Just imagine what they'd do if they suddenly gained human-level intelligence overnight.
01:01With their unique vocal abilities, capybaras could make fantastic voice actors, creating sounds beyond
01:07human capability and adding realism to animals in movies. Ultimately, getting back to the fact
01:13that the capybara in Disney's Encanto doesn't have a voice.
01:19Capybaras could even host swimming championships, like they're the Michael Phelps of the animal
01:24kingdom. Alright, maybe I got carried away a bit, but they do move with way more grace
01:29underwater than they do on land. Oh, and remember when we chatted about capybaras and hot baths?
01:35It's not just for showing off on social media. They genuinely love it, because it helps with treating
01:40skin conditions and retaining heat afterwards. So, with a bit more intelligence, they'd probably
01:46take control of hot springs and jacuzzis, kicking the humans out. Picture signs that read
01:51capybaras only, handwritten by capybaras themselves.
01:57You know when you're feeling down and out of the blue your cat saunters over, purring
02:02and rubbing against you to lift your spirits? It's not like these kitties have a crystal ball
02:07for predicting gloomy days. But cats do have this uncanny power to sense their owner's mood.
02:13That's because picking up on others' emotions is crucial for animals that live in social groups.
02:18Well, cats do pick up on their owner's usual behaviors, so they can tell when something is
02:24off and their human is acting differently. Now imagine this sixth sense paired with human-level
02:30intelligence. Cats would open their own whisker wellness center, providing theropause with
02:36purr-fection. If you're lost for words during the therapy session, no worries. They can just purr
02:42in your lap for an hour. But they'll still charge you for that. Cat therapists wouldn't even need
02:47little notepads to write down patients' complaints, because they have an excellent memory. Just like
02:53humans, cats find it easier to remember significant or extreme experiences, such as the time they got
02:59stuck in a closet or when you bought them the first lick-and-lap treat. With impressive procedural
03:04and spatial memory, cats can recall and retain these memories for 10 years or more.
03:10Whether they're happily crashing down a hill or engaged in a bamboo mukbang, there's something
03:16about pandas that we just can't look away from. YouTube is brimming with thousands of videos
03:22featuring these oddly enchanting creatures rolling around, backward, and even sideways.
03:28Theories suggest that they roll for a bunch of reasons, like regulating body temperature or waking
03:33up muscles that have fallen asleep after sitting for long periods. But, well, there's another crucial
03:38factor – laziness. I mean, well, why walk when you can use gravity and roll down hills, right?
03:45If pandas were as smart as humans, they could pioneer the world's first school for perfect jobs for the
03:51lazy, such as working on motocross circuits. Rolling all the way down to check if the ramp's slope is
03:57just right. They would also be the champs at detecting when people lie, so they could do a pretty good
04:03job as
04:04lawyers, HR professionals, or negotiators. I know, I know, we often think of them as black and white, clumsy
04:11creatures, and not exactly protagonists from lie to make. But, after years of living among humans, they've learned
04:18how to distinguish between angry and happy human expressions. So, with a human-level brain, they could easily
04:25become experts in reading micro-expressions. What would you say if I asked you which sea creature is
04:31the smartest? I bet dolphin was the first thing that came to your mind. Yeah, they're pretty clever.
04:36For example, dolphins have this cool move where they use sponges to protect their noses while fishing,
04:42and they learned how to do that 200 years ago. But do you know who figured out how to use
04:48tools
04:48way before dolphins? Yep, sea otters. I know, we often get distracted by how stinking cute they
04:55look floating on their backs, and it's easy to forget those tiny hands and brains can do some
05:01insane stuff. Thanks to their forepaws, equipped with retractable claws and tough pads for gripping,
05:08sea otters can rub, twist, pull, or tear things with surprising skill. So, don't be surprised when you
05:14see them doing crazy stuff like hiding their favorite toys in their bellies or helping people
05:20clean pools. These behaviors are really fun to watch, but they've also learned some impressive
05:25tricks in the wild, like using rocks as hammers to crack open shellfish. In a world where these
05:31water pups are as smart as humans, they'd probably own five-star seafood restaurants around the world.
05:37I mean, they've got mad skills handling the tough shells of creatures like sea urchins, clams,
05:43and crabs. Plus, their impeccably good taste in food would only get better now that they can
05:49finally enroll in le cordon bleu. Now, just because an elephant's brain is three times bigger than the
05:56human average, that doesn't mean elephants are three times smarter than us. Sure, they have three
06:01times more neurons, but only a small part of them is in the cortex, the part responsible for complex
06:07skills like problem-solving and learning. However, elephants are remarkably developed emotionally.
06:14While empathy is often considered a hallmark of human intelligence, elephants also put themselves
06:20in each other's shoes. I mean, feet. These sensitive beings can discern when their elephant buddies are in
06:26pain or feeling down, and they offer comfort when needed. With a more refined intelligence, they might delve
06:33into the world of art, expressing their complex emotions on huge canvases and using their trunks
06:39to create Jackson Pollock-inspired masterpieces. From a huge brain to a tiny one, the size of your
06:46pinky neck. Yep, we're talking about the hamster brain. These cute little buddies are among the cleanest
06:52animals in the world. And I'm not just talking about self-cleaning. They actually like to keep their
06:57surroundings clean, not only in captivity, but also in the wild. For example, hamsters dig deep burrows
07:04with nesting places, and they separate different sections for their waste and food. If hamsters were
07:10smart as humans, they'd turn this cleaning OCD into a business. Hey, meet the Spark Joy Rodent,
07:17the world's first hamster to publish a book, adapting Marie Kondo's techniques to keep its cage
07:23squeaky clean and organized. Hey, Rocky, come here, boy! Did you really expect the list to end without
07:32mentioning dogs? Let me guess, you probably think your best buddy is the smartest thing on four legs
07:38and beam with pride that Rocky actually knows its own name, right? Well, Rocky might be much smarter
07:45than you think. In fact, dogs can understand around 165 words. In our make-believe world,
07:52I'm pretty sure dogs would be the first animals to come up with their own complex language,
07:57opening wolf-language schools around the country. I can picture dogs sitting down for TV interviews,
08:03declaring they're done being called man's best friend and would prefer to be recognized as joy
08:08coaches. Yep, they're excellent at dealing with others and can even intentionally try to trick other
08:14dogs and humans to score some tasty rewards. Good for them, my guess. Since the beginning of time,
08:21humans have shared the world with other species. Each one has a unique perception of what reality is
08:28like in terms of color, speed, and sound. Today, thanks to technology, we can more or less understand
08:36how our world sounds to animals. So how about we try living with their ears for a bit?
08:41Let's start with man's best friend, dogs. It is known that dogs experience time quite differently
08:48than our own. The best guess is that one human year equals seven dog years. But when you call out
08:56their names, what exactly do they hear? Dogs experience our world slower than humans. That works both for
09:03their perception of time, but also for sound. Let's say you're calling Skipper to go for a walk.
09:09You're speaking at a normal pace like you do every day. But to Skipper, he's hearing you in slow motion,
09:16as if you just press the 0.75 speed on your Spotify app. You've also probably heard that dogs have
09:24a
09:24wider hearing range than humans, and that they can hear sounds from a very great distance. And this is
09:30true. An average human being has a hearing range from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. We hear better when
09:39we are younger and tend to hear less when we get older. Yep, this is actually scientific. But our dogs
09:47can hear up to 45 kilohertz, which is considerably more than us. Some dog breeds are known to be good
09:53hunters, and for that reason, they would need better hearing equipment. The thing is, dogs aren't as good
09:59as humans at distinguishing sounds. Humans easily know the difference between slow and go, while dogs,
10:07not so much. This is called frequency selectivity. The scientific explanation for this is that different
10:14parts of the cochlea answer to different frequencies. This is what a human ear looks like on the inside,
10:20and this is what a dog's ear looks like. The cochlea is this part right here that looks like the
10:27shell
10:27of a snail. It's made up of saltwater-like fluid. At the innermost center of this cochlea, there are
10:34tiny hairs that vibrate according to the frequency of sound we are receiving. Some hairs will only be
10:40activated by high-pitched sounds, while other hairs will be activated with lower notes. Dogs really prove to
10:48be humans' besties, as they also tend to lose their hearing with old age. You see, human hearing is at
10:56its
10:56prime when we're young. A study from the University of New South Wales says that a child can hear up
11:02to 24 kilohertz.
11:04When we're young, we can hear extremely high-pitched sounds, but this tends to decrease once we get older. The
11:11maximum
11:11hearing capacity of an older person can go as low as 8 kilohertz. I mean, this person probably can't hear
11:18the birds chirping, or even the beeping of their microwave. Both in dogs and humans, the loss of
11:25hearing has to do with the loss of the tiny hairs in the cochlea. And what about cats? Cats can
11:32hear
11:32higher frequencies than dogs. Their hearing can go a little beyond 60 kilohertz. This is especially
11:39important since they hunt small rodents that make almost imperceptible noises to our human ears.
11:46But with a cat's hearing device, it can pick up on a mouse hiding in a bush over 100 feet
11:51away.
11:52The funny thing is that while dogs experience reality in slower motion than humans do, cats actually
11:59experience life about 9% faster than we do. You've probably heard that sound can also be classified as either
12:07infrasound or ultrasound. Here's what we'll do. I'll give you an example of a sound, and you'll tell me if
12:14you
12:14think it's infrasound or ultrasound. Would you say the sound of tectonic plates moving around is infra or ultrasound?
12:22The correct answer is infrasound. This one is tricky. The movement of ants in an underground tunnel.
12:29Also, infrasound. Infrasounds are low-range frequencies, anything ranging below 20 hertz,
12:36which means we can't hear them. But an elephant can. When you look at elephants, one of the first
12:42things you'll notice is their enormous ears. Well, everything is pretty gigantic. But the ears are
12:50impressive, especially in comparison to ours. Their ears allow them to pick up on sound waves that are much
12:58longer than the ones we pick up on. This means they can pick up on the movement of clouds and
13:03can physically hear
13:04when rain clouds are gathering. This is helpful to them because they will know when it's time to head down
13:10to water
13:11reservoirs, for example.
13:13Elephants also use infrasound to communicate with each other. They do that by pounding their feet on the ground.
13:19This sets up a powerful, but hardly audible vibration. And since elephants are so awesome,
13:26they can pick up the vibration through nerve endings in their feet and ear bones. It works kind of like
13:31a bush telephone.
13:33Speaking of vibration, how do you think a snake can be enchanted by a flute if it doesn't have any
13:38ears?
13:39Well, the snake is not following the music. It's following the man's imperceptible foot
13:45tapping on the ground. You see, for humans, sound waves are usually carried by the air. But snakes,
13:53who move around through the ground, are connected to the environment by vibration. Snakes don't have
13:59eardrums, so their inner ear is connected to their jaw. Plus, the vibrations move from bone to bone inside a
14:07snake. This is called osteophany, which literally means that snakes listen with their bones. If this
14:14worked for humans, sound waves could literally send chills down someone's spine, huh? Okay, so humans
14:22listen through the air. Elephants and snakes can hear through the ground. How does hearing work for water
14:29animals? You could think that the water element impairs hearing, but not for dolphins. Dolphins emit
14:36extremely high-frequency sound waves that are classified as ultrasound. They emit clicking
14:42sounds to scan the water for food and other animals. Whichever way sound bounces back to them will help
14:49them identify what's in the water ahead and around them. To put it simply, dolphins see with their ears.
14:56This ability is called echolocation, and it's a form of navigation through sound.
15:04Well, you've heard of sonars, right? It's an instrument ships use to search for things underwater.
15:11A sonar emits very fast sound pulses that bounce off the seafloor and back.
15:16This way, they can detect the depth of the water. They can find shipwrecks,
15:21and even discover geological formations. That's pretty much what dolphins do to locate themselves.
15:27Oh, and if National Geographic is right, humans can hear frequencies up to 100 kilohertz when we are
15:34diving underwater. This means we can hear almost the same way as dolphins. Can you imagine using
15:41echolocation to wade through the water? Scientists don't exactly know why this happens, but they have
15:48two guesses. It might have something to do with how sound travels differently through the water.
15:52It can also have to do with the way our ears receive sound underwater and how our brain interprets it.
16:00Now, it's not only dolphins that can use sound to navigate through life. Bats can also do that.
16:06Since bats tend to live in dark or even pitch black environments, they can't really count on their
16:12vision. But they have such precious hearing equipment that they might not even need to watch where they are
16:18going. Even though a bat's brain is tiny, it can thoroughly map the entire environment it is in
16:24and easily locate prey. What about rodents? If you've ever seen a mouse or a chipmunk bouncing around,
16:32you've probably thought they'd looked a bit accelerated. Here's a fun fact. Compared to humans,
16:37a chipmunk experiences reality at half the speed as we do. So what looks super fast and clumsy to us
16:44is
16:44seemingly pretty chill from that rodent's point of view. In terms of hearing, a mouse's hearing can
16:50go as high as 91 kilohertz, which is very, very high. Quite fascinating, huh?