By Tom Bishop BBC News Online entertainment staff

Test Your Pet sees Rolf Harris enter his 51st year of broadcasting

He is presenting Test Your Pet, a BBC One series encouraging viewers to put their animals through a series of simple challenges devised by animal behaviourists.

"From the enormous number of pets in this country we are trying to get a database of what pets people prefer and what their pets' intelligence and memory is like," Harris told BBC News Online.

"We are also trying to find out which is the most intelligent type of pet - the dog, cat, bird, rodent, horse, goldfish or rabbit."

Natural

The series sees the Australian entertainer enter his 51st year in broadcasting, a career which spanned children's cartoon shows, natural history projects, arts series Rolf On Art and UK chart-topper Two Little Boys.

Following the success of veterinary series Animal Hospital, the 74-year-old said it was natural for him to front Test Your Pet.

"A lot of viewers said the Animal Hospital theme used to bring their dogs racing in to sit in front of the TV set," he said.

"I think a lot of people will be shocked at how intelligent their pets are."

Harris tested the show's challenges on his two dogs and five cats

Coinciding with National Pet Week, Test Your Pet will quiz as many pet owners as possible in what aims to be the biggest national survey of its kind.

"We want viewers to engage with a natural history programme in a new way," Harris said. "Rather than sitting back and being told about animal behaviour, we would like them to check for themselves and share their findings with us."

Harris said he tested all its challenges on his own two dogs and five cats, with varying degrees of success.

"The dogs picked it up really quickly," he said. "I dropped a treat onto a chair so they could no longer see it, and they soon realised where it had gone. The cats simply refused to join in."

Memory

The series has enrolled Oxford University animal behaviour expert Dr Tim Guilford to examine whether pet responses are based upon instinct, intelligence, memory development or mere coincidence.

"We have already challenged the belief that goldfish have a five-minute memory," Harris said.

"As the fish were being fed, a few drops of coloured dye were put into their water. Two days later the dye was dropped in again, and the fish would go straight to the coloured area looking for food."

Pets including a hamster and a horse will also be filmed in a bid to track their behaviour while their owners are asleep or absent.

Viewers may be stunned if they assume their pet is very bright Rolf Harris

In addition to Test Your Pet, Harris is currently filming a new series of Rolf On Art and four Animal Hospital behind-the-scenes specials.

While he remains open-minded about the results of the Test Your Pet survey, he has an idea which group of pets will be ranked most intelligent.

"It could be parrots because they normally fly around in flocks of several hundred and suffer total boredom when deprived of the companionship of other birds," he said.

Harris adds a note of caution: "Some viewers may be stunned if they have gone for years assuming their pet is very bright. It could turn out to be really quite dim."