It's not surprising that a crepuscular ambush predator is less intelligent than pack predators, it would be surprising if it were the other way around.

It's fascinating the replies I get claiming I must be a dog person. It's really... telling... when someone conflates intelligence and moral worth like that. I like cats. I'm not going to pretend they're as smart as dogs just because I like them.

Hah, I had a whole long comment about how I was most impressed by pack hunters, but I somehow backed myself into a bunch of comments around how they must be smart enough to model each other's behavior, which in some ways seems similar to metacognition... until I realized I was in totally over my head and about to make a bunch of arguments about intelligence and animal behavior that I had no chance of backing up.

So, raccoons in the garbage.