Last year, following the publication of research in the “Animal Cognition” journal, the newspaper headlines summed up the findings: “Dogs are smarter than cats”. A researcher had devised a simple experiment where the animals were asked to pull bits of string with their paws in order to receive a reward. Dogs performed better at the task, and the conclusion was that “there was no evidence that cats understand the function of the strings.” 
 
 Of course, cat lovers would interpret the results differently. The cats didn’t perform well at the string-pulling test because they didn’t want to perform well. After all, why should they do what the researcher wanted them to do? No self-respecting cat should be expected to carry out random human demands. 
 
 Animal intelligence scientists are in the news again today, and that same headline is up there: "Dogs are smarter than cats". This time, the researchers are based at Oxford University. They've analysed the brain size of different groups of mammals as they’ve evolved over the past 60 million years, looking at the brain and body size of over 500 species of living and fossilised mammals. The brains of monkeys grew the most over time, followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs. 
 
 They’ve concluded that it’s the social behaviour of the “big brained” groups of animals that makes the difference. Dogs need to use lots of brain power to deal with complicated dog-to-dog interactions. This continual “brain exercise” has stimulated the dog’s brain to grow bigger over thousands of years. Cat, on the other hand, like other solitary species, have not experienced the same type of brain growth. Their brains don’t do the same type of mental exercise, because they don’t need to deal with complex social situations. 
 
 Again, the headlines claim that this “proves” that dogs are brighter than cats. And once again, cat owners will interpret the research results in a different way. So what if dogs’ brains have grown bigger over the past thousands of years. This may make them a little less stupid than they used to be, but it still doesn’t make them smarter than cats. Cats have always been sufficiently intelligent; if there’s no need to develop a bigger brain, why bother? And brain size isn’t everything. Dogs have a huge olfactory lobe on their brain, so they have a very sensitive sense of smell. How, precisely, does this contribute to their IQ? 
 
 Even when looking at brain sizes of modern animals, it’s not obvious that dogs are ahead. The average human has a brain weighing 1.4kg, or 2.5 per cent of body weight. A cat brain weighs around 30g, which is around 1 per cent of body weight, and although dogs have bigger brains, from 64g upwards, their bodies are also bigger, so the brain makes up a smaller percentage of body mass than cats. Neither does a more detailed analysis of the brain help the case for dogs: if the number of neurons in the cortex (the thinking part of the brain) is analysed, humans have ten billion, cats have 300 million and dogs only have 160 million. 
 
 My own conclusion: dogs and cats are smart in different ways. Perhaps the folk who issue press releases on behalf of researchers are the ones who are lacking in intelligence. ||||| The intelligence of “a man’s best friend” has evolved at a greater rate than the less social cat over millions of years, scientists at Oxford University have claimed. 
 
 It was often thought that the feline pet was smarter than its canine counterpart because it needed less attention but researchers have discovered that cat’s brains are smaller because they are less social. 
 
 For the first time scientists have charted the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals over 60 million years and identified huge variations in how their brains have changed. 
 
 They found that there was a link between the size of an animal’s brain in relation to the rest of its body and how socially active it was. 
 
 The study analysed available data on the brain and body size of over 500 species of living and fossilised mammals. The brains of monkeys grew the most over time followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs. 
 
 It found that groups of mammals with relatively bigger brains tended to live in stable social groups. The brains of more solitary mammals such as cats, deer and rhino, grew much more slowly during the same period. 
 
 Previous research had suggested that the growth rate of the brain relative to body size followed a general trend across all animal groups. 
 
 The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences overturns this view, showing there is a wide variation in patterns of brain growth across different groups of mammals and not all of them have larger brains – suggesting social animals had to think more. 
 
 Dr Susanne Shultz, who led the research, said: “Dogs have always been regarded as the more social animals while cats like to get on with their own thing alone. But it appears that interaction is good for the brain and extends to other species, like ourselves. 
 
 “We are even more social than monkeys and apes and it is this ability to get on with each other that has helped us dominate the planet. 
 
 “This study overturns the long-held belief that brain size has increased across all mammals. Instead, groups of highly social species have undergone much more rapid increases than more solitary species. 
 
 “This suggests the co-operation and co-ordination needed for group living can be challenging and over time some mammals have evolved larger brains to be able to cope with the demands of socialising.” 
 
 Dr Shultz added: “All dogs are quite good at solving problems, which gives credence to the traditional image of the cunning fox which is a member of the same family. Dogs descended from wolves which appear to have the biggest brains as they live in large family groups.”
– The latest salvo in the battle regarding the relative intelligence of felines and dogs is bound to leave cat owners howling. Researchers are now claiming that dogs' intelligence has grown at faster rates historically than cats, spurred by canines' more social nature. They've discovered a historical link between the size of an animal’s brain in relation to the rest of its body and how socially active it has been. The study analyzed data on the brain and body size of more than 500 species and found the brains of monkeys grew the most over time, followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs, reports the Telegraph. The analysis revealed that groups of mammals with bigger brains tended to live in social groups, while brains of more isolated animals such as cats, deer, and rhinos tended to grow much more slowly. "It appears that interaction is good for the brain," says Oxford researcher Susanne Shultz. Findings "suggest that co-operation needed for group living can be challenging and over time some mammals have evolved larger brains to be able to cope.” Is the Telegraph buying its own story? Not quite. Columnist Pete Wedderburn debunks some of the science behind the study, arguing that dogs and cats are each intelligent in their own way—and possibly more intelligent than the humans who concocted the research.