Are cats smarter than dogs?

Well there's solitary and then there's solitary hunters. Dogs hunt in packs. Do cats? I'm referring to specifics of cornering prey, etc.

I agree about cat's dispositions not necessarily being solitary at all, though. My queen kitty had three daughters and they were all a big fuzzy lump of purring love. (Wasn't that an Elvis song...?)

Lions hunt in packs. That's a necessity of their niche, though: most, if not all, of the available prey is bigger than they are individually.

I cannot comment on the hunting thing - though we did have a mother/son pair of cats once, when a brown snake left a huge litter of highly poisonous snakelings to hatch in our back yard.

The cats killed 18 of them - together - always the same way - son would dance about in front of the snake, apparently to distract it, while mum crept up behind and pounced, killing it by biting through the spine just behind the head.

Make of it what you will...

Right. I mean domestic kitty-cats. I don't think I've ever seen that. Thinking, though. Not sure.

edit -- just saw yours about the snake-killers, dlowan. Interesting.

Lions hunt in packs. That's a necessity of their niche, though: most, if not all, of the available prey is bigger than they are individually. And I think the maternal and intralitter bonds can be considered separately from sociality among adults: even mother grizzlies display this kind of behavior, and those are not grown-up animals who generally like to hang together in the wild.

(Which makes me wonder about the two male grizzlies they've got at the local zoo, and whether they may either have to be separated as they mature or whether being kept together might result in a sort of suspended adolescence, such as we impose on our pets.)

Running off at the mouth again, naturally -- but I can justify it: dogs and bears share a common ancestor.

All I know is that they are different and at least in this house Carlotta the cat rule Bean the dog. Carlotta out wits Bean every time. But I am not sure that means Carlotta is smarter or just does not want to hurt the Bean they are both the same size and Bean is very fast. However, when they do meet in close quarters Bean the dog defers to Carlotta the cat.

Sure cats are definitely smarter than dogs
could ever be. I have 3 at present, but have often
had as many as 6 or 7. We have an organization
called Cat Angels, and they try to find temp homes
for a cat until they can find an "adoptive home"
The only cat I just could not take was a huge Maine
Coon cat. My oldest is the biggest at this point in
her life, it somebody BIGGER came along....she
would NEVER forgive me. She held a grudge from
the time I was in Mexico. She stayed out back on
the porch (well unless it was pouring rain) and
it took her about 5 to 6 months to FORGIVE ME for
letting her down....by leaving her in the hands of
my grandson - who did a good job and loves her...
and my daughter, who is just a tad lazy and some
days it is a wonder if their dog or cats got fed.
Till Dad comes home from work, anyway.
Cats - They will ignore and disdain you for food,
yet they end up with the YOU wrapped around
their finger, in the long run.
I have one of those cats described here earlier.
AT LEAST 20 TIMES A DAY,v (maybe more)
she sits at the glass door and drags her paw
against it making this bizarre sliding noise.
You can not miss it, OR ignore it. Cats CAN be
trained to use a toilet AND to flush. Heck,
some guys can't even manage that.....

Really, guys - only kidding with you there :wink: :wink:

Hmm, I do recommend the book my signature is from. Eleanor Clark's piece on the cats in piazza Vittorio tells of a very old feral colony. The cats in Rome were gathered up at some point, but it might have been in the seventies, and besides some would have gotten away. I can't remember if Eleanor mentioned it, haven't reread the "cat" section of the book in a while. (That book was written in 1952, but is out in a new edition.) I see the old edition once in a while at used book stores.

I still don't know which is smarter...

Pigs are smarter than either of them.

Almost enough to make one think, no?

I'm tempted to tag this discussion "political", "ultra-polarizing".

The important point is: Four legs good, two legs bad.

I think you'll find it's entirely dependent on the size of the dog. Try that with a full-grown bobcat....

We have two cats that act like dogs.

These are two really stupid cats.