Super smart animals. Part Two.

The second in a two part series in which Liz Bonnin travels the world in search of the most intelligent animals. This part focuses specifically on communication and emotions. Beginning by looking at sheep dogs and their trainers, we then meet Chaser, a dog owned by retired psychiatrist John Pilley, who understands over a thousand words. We also hear about communication between herds of elephants in Africa and towns of prairie dogs. Monty Roberts describes the horse language of gestures that he calls equus. Bonnin tests out the cunning of vervet monkeys in a beach side cafe and in Florida we learn about acorn thieves and deception among the scrub-jay population. Capuchin monkeys go through strange behavioural rituals to prove affinity and cooperation with their group and Josh Plotnik shows an experiment which proves that elephants understand the importance of cooperation. Meerkat communication is analysed, as is the importance of play amongst dolphins. Bonnin meets two seemingly friendly grey sperm whales and John Marzluff demonstrates his research into a crow's ability for facial recognition. Finally we meet Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and her amazing work to open up communication with bonobo monkeys Kanzi and Panbanisha. Bonnin concludes that the boundary between human and animal communication is far smaller than we might have thought.