What is the smartest animal not human

[MrMistery]

Inventing basically means making something out of something else
To answer Inuyasha's question, some other species can invent but they are all homo sapiens' ancestors.
Did you ever wonder how they drew the line between australopitecus aferensis and other primates and considered Lucy the oldest human? Whell, that is it. It is known(or assumed) that the australopitecus was the first one to use tools(which were then carved stones) Those are probably the first inventions
I know this from my geography teacher, which is a relly walking encyclopedia, so it is probably true

[Wilmer]

No Inuyasha, sorry. Read it in a magazine (Illustrerad Vetenskap (Illustrated Science)).

By the way Inuyasha is a really good anime.

[Inuyasha]

So how would you define inventing. Then?

[MrMistery]

Inventing basically means "to use things that other people know about and understand how they work to create something completely new"
Regards,
Andrew

[Inuyasha]

So how would you define other animals abilities to make life easier for themselves. Is that inventing. Or is inventing any thing that alters your own natural enviroment?

[MrMistery]

What i described is inventing an object. A chimpanzee uses a stick to look for ants in an ant farm. I guess that is inventing, but not inventing an object. He invented a way to make his life easier by using what he had in his environment.
But, to answer your question, I guess you could say that inventing objects is anything that alters the natural enviroment

[Inuyasha]

hmmm. Inventing. So when an otter picks a stoen up to crack an oyster he hasn't invented the tool he is just using it. RIght?

[MrMistery]

He has invented a way to use something that was already in his natural environment

[Inuyasha]

So there are two definitions then?

[Kmurphy3]

Have any of you heard of the crows that took straight wires and bent them into hooks to snag food in a cylindrical container? They "produced something previously unknown to them, by the use of imagination. Look up the freaking word. Stop being so stupid, humans and humanlike creatures are not the only things that "invent."

invent-
To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

[offending content edited by Moderator - Canalon]

[Carolynparsons]

apes use sticks to dig ants/termites and the like out of hole/nests

certain whales use bubbles to herd fish

Gulls drop shells on rocks to crack them open

Otters use rocks to break open mussels

Just because there are no buttons doesn’t mean it’s not an invention

Their methods are probably trail and error.


Crows are extremely smart

[123Herpatology]

I think i watched an episode of "The most Extreme" a few nights back about intelligence, and they narrowed it down to a species of crow (don't remember which scecies). they just had it go through a series of tests, and recorded the speed at which it completed it. they said this species of crow was able to have a highly developed sense of time (they even showed a crow use traffic lights to create their dinner). In conclusion they said it was about the intelligence level of a 5-6 year old child. But i think it is hard to distinguish intelligence because as you guys said, it's based off of human intelligence which is merely an adaptation to fit our niche.