The One Show, poll

[captain nodge]

On last nites the one show (03 02) they had a poll to regognize out of three creatures, common seal,rook, octopus, cant remember what type pretty common one anyway,
Which one would you think would win?

[Dogghound]

The one most of the public would recognise? I would imagen Octopus. Clearly they would not be expect to name the species? I would imagen most people dont know we have two common seal species and just dub them both seals and most people would refer to rooks as crows or even blackbirds.

[captain nodge]

durr sorry what i meant to post was:~what would you think was the most intellegent out of the 3?,also you say two types of common seal, is that because ones a harbour seal?

[The Woodman]

I think Dogghound meant there are two common species of seal around our shores, the Common or Harbour and the Grey Seal.

I'll stand corrected if that's not what he meant.

[Lancashire Lad]

I would imagine that all three creatures are quite intelligent, but I would go for the octopus.

Octopi are very intelligent, and have been subject to many scientific tests.

One such test that I recall involved an octopus finding its way through an extremely complicated 3-dimensional underwater "maze", to find a tidbit of food.

The octopus sorted the problem out quicksmart, and was subsequently able to rapidly find the food regardless of where it was placed in the maze.

Regards,
Mike.

[Cowgirl]

Hmmmm..... I would probably go for octopus as well but I dunno Rooks can work things out as well

What one won?

[captain nodge]

Yep it was the octopus, clever little blighters, the rook in my opinion would beat the seal as the seal needed to be taught stuff whereas the rook used initiative,

[fairplay]

'Scuse me butting in here, but where 'Harbour Seal' was mentioned is one getting mixed up with Harbour Porpoise as I only know of Common Seal and Grey Seal.

Carry on.

Neil.

[Jez]

Personally I think none are more intelligent than the other, unless that is you happen to see a deep sea diving rook, a seal scavenging out on on the hard shoulder or an octopus in rookery . I'm sure if all where put in to a 3D maze of some sort all will eventually find their prize!

[Dogghound]

Sorry guys, abit misleading I did mean two types of common seal but as in two abundant species Common/harbour and Grey. Abit off topic as the original question has changed.

Fairplay: Harbour seal (& Spotted seal) is another name for common seal.