Whales can project images through sonar to other whales. The level of development and complexity is that matters the most. Humans often take pride in their large brains. Whales and dolphins have large brains; brainy dolphins have a brain to body ratio second only to humans.

That’s science. I love our curious nature. I find arguments like, "What do we mean by intelligence?" Whales would not have evolved such huge brains unless they were beneficial (& being used)How your brain sees your body: Meet the cortical homunculusWhales don't need to use their immense brain power on hands (that they don't possess). Featured on Meta It's truly an alien environment. So while whales have a higher surface in absolute value (approx 2-3 times) yet their brain is larger by approx 5-6 times ( lots of comparison data There's really no answer to your question, unless you can define "smart. The majority of that brain mass is in the frontal lobes- the part of the brain associated with higher cognitive processes (relatively little is involved with motor processes).Brains require a lot of energy. More generally, intelligence is what it takes to do things that humans do.

Our sonars could hear submarines many miles away.Whales are probably capable of some remarkable feats that have yet to be discovered, some of which may translate into what we would define as genius.In any comparison of intelligence, the most important question is how are we going to define intelligence? Discuss the workings and policies of this site ——— Please take the Octopuses - perhaps the most intelligent invertebrates - can similarly manipulate objects. [I have read also that pigs are smarter than either cats or dogs. I would bet that whales do poorly on standardized IQ tests for example ;)I'll say this: If one were presented with both brains and asked which one belonged to a god-like being, seems like 9 out of 10 people would say the one on the left. Whales and elephants have much larger brains than humans, but have even larger bodies to go with them. The whale neocortex is thicker than that of other mammals and roughly equal to that of humans (2.63 mm). By this logic tall people would be smarter because bigger body--> more sensory input --> more brainpower.plus the answers in the linked question by @Bez do not support your claimsPlease could you add some supporting scientific material that reinforces your answer and allows further reading.Welcome to Biology.SE! Biology Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled I'm Tim Tyler - and this is a video about how smart whales are - in comparison with humans. Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us Anybody can ask a question It's possible that they are smarter than humans in certain areas.Incidentally, I worked with underwater sonar in the Navy and later worked on a research project studying the underwater vocalizations of bowhead whales in the Arctic Ocean. boring. Many parts of the human brain is found in lower order animals as shown in the image below: The surface to volume ratio matters because the higher ratio implies a more complex brain structure. Basically all land mammals have the basic senses more or less, so just being big does not imply more sensory input. By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Doubt you can do the Samuel? If only size would matter that basically humans would be rather unintelligent beings ( many many animals have larger head and brain than us). It's truly an alien environment. What I was trying to explain (yet failed for the first time it seems), that mere physical size / volume is not that important. However, the human brain is relatively small in comparison to the brains of elephants, dolphins and whales. Anybody can answer Stack Exchange network consists of 177 Q&A communities including

If some animals begin to approach human intelligence, why must whales and every other candidate intelligence necessarily squeeze between apes and men?I might also be useful to check the wiki pages about brain and brain size It's useful to think about brain size relative to body size.

It's possible that they are smarter than humans in certain areas. They lack the ability to write or store their knowledge or "language" in books or computer hard drives. We don’t make much of pig intelligence for some reason.] site design / logo © 2020 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Biology Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for biology researchers, academics, and students.