When you think of animal training, the usual suspects are “sit,” “stay,” “roll over” and “fetch.” But the creature kingdom has a handful of overachievers who go far beyond the basics, setting world records and shattering expectations for their species. These ten amazing animal accomplishments showcase just how inventive and capable our fellow beings can be.
10 Amazing Animal Highlights
10 Mice That Surf And Skateboard
Shane Willmott, a lifelong surfer living on Australia’s Gold Coast, has turned his backyard into a miniature beach for his pet mice. Every summer, he and his tiny companions chase real waves, proving that size isn’t a barrier to catching a swell.
The idea sparked over three decades ago when a teenage Willmott spotted tiny ripples while hanging out with friends. He imagined being small enough to ride them and realized a mouse could perfectly exploit those miniature conditions. From that moment, the quest to teach mice to surf began.
Willmott’s curriculum starts in his bathtub, where the rodents practice balance on miniature boards. Once they master staying upright, they graduate to his pool, where a remote‑controlled boat pulls them through water, acclimating them to motion. After conquering the pool, the mice graduate to the ocean’s edge, ready for authentic surf sessions.
When winter chills make the sea too cold, the mice swap surfboards for skateboards. Willmott built a backyard skate park where the critters zip down ramps and even perform daring feats like leaping through a ring of fire, keeping their adrenaline pumping year‑round.
9 Dogs That Drive Cars
In New Zealand, a shelter’s rescue dogs have taken the wheel—literally. The Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals set out to prove that shelter dogs possess untapped talents that could boost adoption rates.
After an eight‑week intensive training program, two canine graduates, Porter and Monty, learned to operate a specially modified Mini Countryman. The modifications allowed them to turn the ignition, press the brake and accelerator with their paws, and steer the wheel.
The dogs demonstrated full control: they could start the engine, modulate speed, and navigate the vehicle safely. Their ability to manage these functions highlighted the remarkable cognitive and motor skills they had acquired.
Their triumph aired on television in December 2012. Monty, a giant schnauzer, barreled down a straight track without assistance, while Porter, a bearded collie mix, skillfully guided the car around a curve, only veering slightly onto the grass—proof that even a pup can become a competent driver.
8 The Title‑Holding Cat
Didga the cat has amassed a repertoire of tricks that would make most dogs blush. Though felines are notoriously independent, Didga earned a Guinness World Record for the most tricks performed by a cat in a single minute.
Her inaugural feat featured 20 distinct tricks in sixty seconds. She soon eclipsed that benchmark, executing 24 tricks in a minute, including rolls, jumps over bars, and even a skateboard ride—all while maintaining poise.
Didga’s journey began when her future owner, Robert Dollwett, adopted her from a shelter. He recalls that she started performing eye‑catching stunts to win his attention during the adoption process, prompting him to nurture her latent abilities.
Beyond the record‑setting routine, Didga defies typical cat behavior: she enjoys swimming, surfing, skateboarding, and even uses a human toilet—complete with a flush—making her a true feline renaissance animal.
7 Pigeons Count As Well As Primates
Counting has long been considered a primate specialty, but New Zealand researchers have shown that pigeons can match, and even surpass, some primates in numerical cognition.
The team capitalized on pigeons’ keen eyesight and trainability, designing a touch‑screen task that displayed one, two, or three shapes. The birds learned to peck the images in ascending order to earn a treat, mastering the basic counting sequence.
After securing the three‑item routine, the researchers introduced images containing between one and nine items. Remarkably, without further instruction, the pigeons correctly identified and pecked the numerical values in proper order, demonstrating spontaneous counting ability.
This performance indicates that avian brains can process ordinal numbers as efficiently as rhesus monkeys, reshaping our understanding of animal intelligence across species.
6 The Famous Rabbit Artist
Bini, a six‑year‑old Holland Lop rabbit, has turned the art world on its head by painting with a brush clenched in his mouth. Over 300 original canvases bear his paw‑free signature, each taking between 40 and 90 minutes to complete.
His creations command prices up to $300, and his talents don’t stop at painting. Bini can style hair, dominate arcade games, and even dunk basketballs—setting a Guinness World Record with seven slam dunks in one minute back in 2017.
5 Bumblebees That Play Soccer
A research team at Queen Mary University of London taught bumblebees to engage in a miniature soccer match, pushing the limits of insect cognition.
The experiment presented each bee with a ball roughly half its size and a target zone. The goal was to determine whether the insects could learn a task that never occurs in nature, thereby testing their problem‑solving abilities.
Results were astonishing: some bees independently discovered how to roll the ball into the goal, others learned by observing the ball’s movement, and the most successful individuals watched their peers succeed before replicating the strategy with greater efficiency.
These findings confirm that bumblebees possess flexible, higher‑order cognitive processes, capable of mastering complex, non‑instinctual tasks.
4 The Rope‑Jumping Beagle
Purin, a lively beagle from Japan, teamed up with owner Makoto Kumagai to set a Guinness World Record for the most rope‑skips performed by a dog‑human duo in one minute—51 jumps in May 2016. They later upped the ante, achieving 58 jumps in January 2017.
Purin also holds two additional records: the most balls caught by a dog using its paws in a minute (14 mini soccer balls in 2015) and the fastest time a dog traversed 10 meters (33 ft) while riding a ball—10.39 seconds, eclipsing her previous 11.9‑second mark.
Beyond record‑breaking, Purin showcases a versatile skill set, including skateboarding, sledding, cycling, and even practicing kendo, the Japanese martial art resembling fencing.
3 The Published Siamese Cat Author
Physicist Jack H. Hetherington co‑authored a 1975 paper in *Physical Review Letters* alongside his Siamese cat, Chester, listed under the pseudonym F.D.C. Willard.
Hetherington inadvertently used the plural pronoun “we” throughout the manuscript. Since the journal required multiple authors for such language, he faced a dilemma: rewrite the entire paper or add a second author. He chose the latter, crediting his cat to satisfy the publication’s guidelines.
Chester’s official designation—F.D.C. Willard—stood for “*Felis domesticus*, Chester,” with “Willard” honoring his father. The journal assumed Hetherington collaborated with a human colleague, unaware of the feline co‑author.
After the paper’s release, the truth emerged, sparking amusement among Hetherington’s peers. Chester’s literary résumé didn’t stop there; he later appeared as the sole author of a 1980 article in *La Recherche*, a French scientific magazine.
2 Elephants That Landed A Record Deal
The Thai Elephant Orchestra, based at a conservation centre for retired work elephants, demonstrates that these massive mammals can also be musical virtuosos.
Designers crafted 22 oversized, durable instruments—drums, xylophones, and harmonicas—suitable for the elephants’ size and strength. Once introduced to the instruments, the elephants grasped their use without needing reward‑based encouragement.
The ensemble’s performances evoke the serene sounds heard in Buddhist temples, and they have released three full‑length albums, cementing their place in the world of animal‑made music.
1 The Monkey Named ‘Person Of The Year’
In 2011, wildlife photographer David Slater captured a close‑up selfie of Naruto, a crested macaque from Indonesia, by teaching the monkey to press the camera’s shutter while looking directly into the lens.
The image went viral, but when blogs and Wikipedia used it without Slater’s permission in 2014, he demanded its removal or compensation. Both platforms refused, arguing that the copyright belonged to the monkey, not the photographer.
PETA filed a lawsuit on Naruto’s behalf in 2015, seeking legal recognition of the macaque as the image’s owner—a groundbreaking case aiming to extend property rights to non‑human animals. The court ultimately ruled that animals are not covered by the Copyright Act, dismissing the claim.
Although the case was settled out of court, with Slater agreeing to donate 25 percent of any future earnings from the photo to macaque‑conservation charities, PETA still honored Naruto by naming him “Person of the Year” in 2017, celebrating his unique place in copyright history.