Have you ever ever seemed into your guinea pig’s clean stare and questioned, do you could have even one mind cell? Or maybe you’ve been educating them tips and been amazed at how briskly they be taught! Both method, you would possibly marvel: how good are they actually?
Guinea pigs are generally regarded as unintelligent, however this isn’t essentially true. They will be taught their names, how one can carry out tips, and have wonderful long-term recollections. Science is constantly studying extra about animal intelligence and the way good our pet piggies are in comparison with different animals.
On this article, I’ll focus on how good guinea pigs are, how their reminiscence works, and extra.
How Sensible Are Guinea Pigs?
Scientists are nonetheless studying about how good guinea pigs are as new research are launched. Though many individuals consider guinea pigs as unintelligent animals, they really have first rate studying talents.
Guinea pigs can be taught some language, acknowledge their homeowners and cage mates, and have nice long-term recollections. They’ve an excellent sense of path as effectively.
Home guinea pigs have been proven to have greater problem-solving abilities than wild guinea pigs, regardless of their brains being 13% smaller. Regardless of it being a typical delusion, a smaller mind doesn’t truly imply an animal is much less clever!
This study additionally confirmed that home guinea pigs make associations quicker than their wild counterparts.
Over time, domesticated guinea pigs have modified to do higher in man-made conditions, as a result of they’ve tailored to rely on us for survival.
Guinea Pigs Perceive Some Language
Guinea pigs are smarter than most individuals understand. They will be taught to acknowledge their names, carry out tips, and know some human language.
There’s even a guinea pig named Millie who makes use of buttons to speak in human phrases. As might be anticipated, she principally asks for meals!
Many individuals are shocked by what number of phrases their guinea pigs be taught to know over time. After all, it takes lots of repetition to show language to any new pet. Even you and I can’t be taught a brand new language in a single day.
Your guinea pigs gained’t perceive what you say to them straight away, similar to human infants don’t come out of the womb understanding English.
It’s a good suggestion to make use of the phrases you need them to know in context as a lot as potential. As an illustration, you would possibly say “veggie time!” when feeding them their greens for the evening, or “hay” when topping up their hay pile.
Guinea Pigs Acknowledge Their Homeowners
Sure! Guinea pigs are extremely social, and because of this they’ll acknowledge each different guinea pigs and their human households.
Your guinea pig is more likely to acknowledge the distinction between you and different people, particularly when you’ve identified each other for a very long time.
They probably use their sense of scent and listening to alongside their sense of sight to acknowledge you. Weirdly, guinea pigs do act unusual throughout bonding with different guinea pigs. Should you separate and reintroduce them, they’ll typically should reestablish their bond and would possibly act as in the event that they don’t know each other.
Because of this it’s really useful to not separate your guinea pigs until you need to, corresponding to for medical causes. It’s additionally why permitting your piggies to fulfill one another slowly by placing them collectively for a number of hours after which separating them till tomorrow doesn’t work effectively, and is definitely extra demanding than one lengthy bonding session.
Even piggies who see one another by means of their cage bars and are then launched appear to behave like they don’t know each other–however perhaps they only behave otherwise when the opposite is of their territory.
This might need extra to do with us as people not understanding guinea pigs, than the piggies themselves not understanding. Or, they may actually get confused!
However Do They Keep in mind Us?
It’s thought that guinea pigs don’t have excellent short-term reminiscence, which suggests remembering one thing that simply occurred for a brief time frame. As an illustration, your quick time period reminiscence may also help you proper now to recollect the start of this text.
Guinea pigs do have good long-term recollections, which is superior! It means they’re very more likely to bear in mind their outdated homeowners and cage mates.
They will additionally bear in mind issues which have scared them up to now, and can attempt to keep away from these items sooner or later. Within the wild, guinea pigs know their method dwelling and bear in mind the locations they discover meals in order that they’ll return later.
My late guinea pig, Child, used to wander down the hallway and again to my room, the place his cage was saved, if I saved him out for too lengthy throughout flooring time. The primary time it occurred, I used to be shocked he discovered his entire method again!
However now, with extra analysis, I do know that that is widespread data for piggies.
How Sensible Are Guinea Pigs In comparison with Different Animals?
Though I wasn’t capable of finding a lot stable analysis on the matters, it’s believed by most individuals that canines, cats, rabbits, and rats are smarter than guinea pigs.
Many individuals imagine that guinea pigs are smarter than hamsters, nonetheless.
With out research, we are able to’t actually say for positive! I’d say canines and cats are virtually definitely smarter than piggies, in my very own expertise, however evaluating them to different rodents may be extra debatable.
After all, it additionally will depend on what sort of intelligence you’re testing for. As an illustration, guinea pigs probably have a better emotional intelligence than hamsters as a result of they’re social animals, and hamsters aren’t.
In the case of language, canines are probably finest at studying human phrases as a result of they’ve been domesticated so lengthy, and anticipated to observe human instructions–whereas fewer individuals work with their hamsters or guinea pigs to show them English or different human languages.
Variety of Neurons within the Forebrain
A technique to have a look at intelligence is thru the variety of neurons within the forebrain, though that’s solely one of many many components that contribute to animal intelligence.
Let’s see how many neurons different animals have of their forebrain.
| Animal | Variety of Neurons within the Forebrain |
|---|---|
| Home mouse | 14 million |
| Syrian hamster | 17 million |
| Hedgehog | 24 million |
| Brown rat | 31 million |
| Ferret | 38.95 million |
| Guinea pigs | 43.51 million |
| European rabbit | 71.45 million |
| Home cat | 249.83 million |
| Golden retriever | 627 million |
| Human | 21 billion |
I hope this text has helped you be taught extra about guinea pigs and their intelligence. They won’t be the neatest critters on the market, however guinea pigs can be taught greater than most individuals assume!
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