Spokane cats do what comes naturally to cats and can easily identify an easy meal, but fail the "herding" test. This test is rather poorly chosen and seems to be biased towards herding dogs; the outcomes are open to elucidation and the deductions are rubbish. Such tests are often used by "researchers" with veiled agendas i.e. those who merely need statistics to "prove" a pet theory or a predetermined conclusion.
Signs of intelligence in cats are often phrased as "cunning" or are written off as "instinct". Humans don’t like to come clean and admit that intelligence is not exclusively a human trait. .These hard to defend behaviors allow us to do everyday tasks on autopilot and free up more of the brain for unraveling other challenges.
Felines are also equipped to learn certain types of associations, and are of a nature not to learn others. It is a subject of how their brain-wiring has evolved, prompting them to interact with their environment in certain ways. If an experiment or the type of reward doesn't somehow fit into what a cat is prone to doing then the cat just plain won't do it! When trying to measure the relative intelligence some cats do poorly at learning particular things, but if the experiment is recalculated to better suit a feline’s behavioral or perceptual traits, and it takes into consideration what the feline is predisposed to do or not do, the same cats do much better.
Cat fanciers are clearly the best choice for testing a feline’s intelligence. They understand them more and can use that understanding to perform a fair and accurate test.
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