• justin gregg
  • special for BBC

image source, Thinkstock

caption,

Which of the two do you think is smarter?

Dolphins – sociable, playful and communicative – are widely considered the second most intelligent animals after humans.

But in recent years interest in the cognitive capacity of dogs has risen and researchers from specialized centers say that many more things happen in the brain of dogs than previously thought.

In some cognitive tests, they actually outperform great apes and dolphins.

So what does science say? Can dogs be intellectual rivals of dolphins?