Chui is definitely the smartest cat fan, not just in recent incarnations of animal forums, even going all the way back. Gato Gordo is the most notorious legendary cat fan from the old days, but in my debates with him I did find his intellect was lacking somewhat. Like he'd struggle to get the point you were making, which make no mistake is a flaw. You should be able to say "Yes I totally get your point, but..." and like demonstrably fully understand what is said but have a valid point of contention. When you're missing the point, or even intentionally mischaracterising it, you lose intelligence points for me. If you need to lie and be dishonest or obtuse to save face because you're losing and you can't just concede points but cling onto some semblance of your argument... That's a big fail. And gato did that a lot, still respect him and consider him my most notable opponent. Like if I'm Ali he is Joe Frazier. He was the guy I made a name for myself debating. But yeah, Chui was smarter. Long drawn out ongoing debates with Chui would have been VERY challenging, but we never really got into it that much.
There is part of me that thinks being a cat fan is inherently stupid, so that makes it hard for me to accept Chui as my superior. Lol. I'm only half joking, I do think simpletons are drawn to cats. And Sharks. And T-rex. Etc. It's sort of an infantile shallow surface level "sheen" these animals have, and then very damning critical flaws when you dig under the surface. People who think tend to move away from cat appreciation in my experience. We all START as cat fans, and t-rex fans and great white shark fans, but we mature and graduate onto other animals. When a cat fan can starts fully accepting that "fighting" is a weakness in cats, and still likes them anyway for other reasons. Then we can re-assess their intellect. Chui kind of did do that, like he was comfortable with exploring that space. If someone really KNOWS cats and then likes them anyway despite knowing their flaws, that's acceptable. Most cat fans don't.
It's no different for dog fans or any fans. Like if you don't understand your favourite animal has weaknesses and flaws that counterbalance their strengths perfectly, you don't know shit.
Red Dhole I would happily place above myself. Not by a lot (I am not a humble person), but yeah he was definitely academically smarter than me and then yeah fully capable of going toe to toe as well. His academic nouse would give him an edge.
There was a dog guy, specifically dogo argentino guy, named Chazio, who arguably was better than me in some ways. I think my wealth of animal knowledge maybe should still have me beating him, but he kind of would even open my eyes and teach me things about dogo vs cougar specifically. His debating was top notch too, he'd be crushing and pulverising Gato and I'd be like "shit, wish I thought of that". I distinctly remember nervously thinking "damn that's better than me" when he beat up cat fans.
There was a dog guy on dog forums, never went to animal forums, named DanUK who DEFINITELY was smarter than me about dogs. Only one I've met where I just bow and learn and have nothing to say. Some of the things I say now he taught me, when I ran into him I think I had some pretty dumb ideas which he "corrected". He nudged me down a more serious dog path. Pointed me towards the author David Hancock, who is like the guru for this stuff but tbh I think DanUk is smarter and more knowledgeable than him too. Actually kind of easily.
Vita, believe it or not, the puerto rican chick, a teenager when I met her but I guess now probably low 30s or so... I consider her extremely intelligent. Like me she has the combination of wild animal nerd since birth AND working dog family upbringing (hers was pit fighting game dogs). She's a savant, even though sometimes she roasted me and got carried away WANTING wild animals to be better than dogs, and had a silly wet vag for hyenas, when push came to shove she knew.
Brogan and Lycaon were right with me IMO. Brogan complimented me nicely because he knew about hunting dog cultures I knew less about and me vice versa, but both of us generally were pretty close. On dogs. I knew more about wild animals. Lycaon knew a lot about both, but IMO a little less about dogs than me and brogan. Not much. Both those guys were great.
Big Bonns was a super knowledgeable bear guy, and there was another super knowledgeable bear guy whose name escapes me. Ursus something. He wasn't necessarily a great guy, ursus, but the academic skills and intelligence were just supreme.
There was also a skull lady who knew a lot about everything and was very rational. Cojimar was this autistic guy obsessed with the sizes of animals and basically nothing else, however he'd wade in every now and then and be like "yeah logically this gun guy is right" and break it down like spock, and he was a genius. There are SOO many I have forgotten. I can remember their input but not their names necessarily. Kifaru, springs to mind, apollyon, workman, enchained blade was a sperm whale guy, of all things, but pretty smart. There was a smart squid/octopus guy named "ceph" or something. Again I'm missing quite literally hundreds of people, smart people, let alone the dumb people.
I have a feeling in my gut that Bolushi WILL one day surpass me. Right now he is just a fag. But the sky is the limit, he is crushing where I was at 13 and is clearly a very gifted kid. And that's saying something because I was a weirdly gifted animal savant kid too, but Bolushi understands a lot of stuff I didn't. If he keeps on his trajectory he will be something else. IF. Needs to lay off the drill music and stay away from drugs and just submit to being an animal dork, then full glory will be attained.
You young guys all have heaps of potential. Lincoln and Packhunter too... I'm impressed on a "for your age" level definitely. Even Supercat IS smart, his roasting of Bolushi was kind of smart and funny, his writing pretty good. I think he has potential. Right now, at current ages, I consider Alan smarter than you guys though. He's like 40 something and comprehends things easily and also really understands the mechanics of performance and anatomy and etc really well. It would be silly to rate his intellect lower than you guys. I'd say his intellect is equal to mine, his knowledge just needs fleshing out some, but fundamentally understanding logic and how things work is huge, and sometimes in that field he teaches me things.
Tiff/pinky would be the same, I beat him in animal knowledge but he beats me in history knowledge and that can be very crucial in dog stuff. For some reason he is refusing to participate which is annoying. In time.
