IQ of a Squirrel: How Smart Are Squirrels?
There's no real IQ of a squirrel, because IQ is a human test scale. But squirrels are seriously clever for rodents: they bury thousands of nuts and find many of them again using spatial memory, they sometimes fake-bury food when another animal is watching, and they solve puzzle feeders that were designed to stop them. Their real superpower is memory organization.
If you can't remember where you saved last week's notes, let alone 1,000 nuts, IQ Tester shows which part of your thinking needs a system: Find my weak spots.
What is the IQ of a squirrel?
The average iq of a squirrel doesn't exist, for the same reason no animal has an IQ:
- IQ tests use human language, numbers and drawn patterns.
- Scores compare you to other people (average 100, standard deviation 15).
- Squirrels can't take the test and there's no squirrel reference group.
So the better question is "how smart are squirrels, at what?" And for one skill, memory, the answer is: weirdly impressive.
How smart are squirrels compared to humans
Not close overall. Humans plan, talk and reason abstractly. But in one narrow skill, remembering lots of locations, squirrels do something most of us couldn't:
- Scatter hoarding: gray and fox squirrels bury nuts one at a time in many separate spots, often thousands per season.
- Finding them again: they use memory of landmarks plus smell to recover a lot of them.
- Planting trees by accident: the nuts they don't recover can sprout. Squirrels are low-key foresters.
Could you remember 1,000 hiding spots around your school or campus? Most of us can't remember where we parked.
Squirrels vs dogs, rats and crows
People constantly ask how smart are squirrels compared to other animals. A fair comparison:
| Animal | Strongest skill | Vs squirrel |
|---|---|---|
| Dog | Reading humans | Dogs better at people, squirrels better at hiding spots |
| Rat | Mazes, routes | Similar spatial skills; rats more studied |
| Crow | Tools, planning | Crows usually rank smarter overall |
| Cat | Hunting, timing | Different jobs, hard to compare |
| Squirrel | Remembering caches | The cache memory champion |
How smart are squirrels compared to crows?
Crows usually win: they make and use tools and solve multi-step puzzles. But both species do something similar, which is changing behavior when someone's watching them hide food. For more rodent brain stuff, see our post on the IQ of a rat.
How smart are ground squirrels?
Ground squirrels live in burrows and colonies, so their smarts are more social: alarm calls that warn others about different predators. Tree squirrels are the cache-memory specialists.
Caching and memory: the squirrel superpower
This is where squirrel intelligence gets nerdy.
Chunking by type
A study from UC Berkeley, published in 2017 in Royal Society Open Science, found fox squirrels tended to sort their caches by nut type (almonds here, hazelnuts there, and so on) when nuts were given out one type at a time. That's called chunking, organizing info into groups so it's easier to remember. Humans do it with phone numbers (555-0134 instead of 5550134).
Fake burying
Research on gray squirrels has found that when they're being watched by other squirrels (or even people), they sometimes pretend to bury a nut, cover the empty hole, and stash the real one somewhere else. That's deceptive caching, aka squirrel opsec.
Do squirrels remember where they bury nuts?
Yes, many of them. Memory plus smell does the work. They don't find all of them, but enough that it's clearly not luck.
Puzzle feeders and obstacle courses
If you've seen viral videos of squirrels running wild obstacle courses to steal bird seed, those aren't flukes.
- Puzzle feeders: researchers at the University of Exeter studied gray squirrels on lever and flap puzzles and found they learned to solve them and could switch strategies when the solution changed.
- "Squirrel proof" feeders: the internet is full of people who bought one and then watched a squirrel beat it in a day. If you've ever lost to a squirrel, you're not alone (see any how smart are squirrels reddit thread).
- Persistence: squirrels try, fail, adjust, try again. Annoying, effective.
Here's the thing: squirrels don't remember everything by trying harder. They use a system: chunking, landmarks, repetition. Most people study without one and then wonder why it doesn't stick. IQ Tester works out your system for you: 20 untimed questions, a breakdown across number series, verbal analogy, logic and pattern, and a guide to which area to drill first. Find my weak spots
What squirrel memory teaches you about studying
Steal these from squirrels for your next exam (or revision season in the UK):
- Chunk it. Group facts by topic instead of one giant list. Squirrels sort nuts by type; you sort formulas by chapter.
- Use landmarks. Tie facts to places (a memory palace) or to something visual on the page.
- Spread it out. Squirrels cache over weeks, not one night. Spaced practice beats cramming.
- Assume someone's watching. Okay, not literally. But testing yourself, like squirrels checking their caches, is how memory sticks.
- Adjust when it fails. Wrong answer? Change the strategy, don't just repeat it.
A squirrel-style study plan for one week
- Monday: sort your topic into 3–5 chunks.
- Tuesday to Thursday: 10 minutes a day, one chunk each, then quiz yourself from memory.
- Friday: mixed quiz across every chunk, like a squirrel checking random caches.
- Weekend: redo only the questions you missed.
That's also why short daily drills work better than one big session. For more animal brain comparisons, check the IQ of a goldfish, whose memory is way better than its reputation.
Find your weak spot faster than a squirrel finds a nut
Your result is actually measurable, unlike the iq of a squirrel. Sign in to IQ Tester with Google or Apple and start 20 untimed questions in about a minute. Your band and three of your four category strengths are free, and the guides then give you one short drill a day on the weakest one. It's for entertainment, not a clinical test.
FAQ
What is the average IQ of a squirrel?
There isn't one. IQ is a human scale, so squirrels can't have a real score. Researchers study specific skills like cache memory and puzzle solving instead.
How smart are squirrels compared to dogs?
Dogs are much better at reading and working with people. Squirrels are better at remembering lots of hiding spots. They're smart in different directions.
Do squirrels remember where they bury their nuts?
Yes, many of them. They use spatial memory and landmarks plus smell, and some research suggests they organize caches by nut type to make remembering easier.
Are squirrels smarter than rats?
They're in a similar range for spatial skills. Rats are more studied in labs, especially mazes, while squirrels stand out for cache memory and fake burying.
How smart are squirrels compared to crows?
Crows usually rank higher overall because of tool use and multi-step planning. Both species protect their food stashes when they're being watched.