Majority of proposed adaptive routing protocols use techniques derived from computational intelligence (CI) discipline. However,due to limited energy and computation resources in MANETs, some CI techniques are more suitable. This includes swarm intelligence[4,5], reinforcement learning [6–9] and fuzzy logic [10]. The main focus of this paper is on the use of fuzzy logic and reinforcement learning. Particularly, the following questions are answered. Firstly,which CI paradigm is more appropriate for adaptive energy efficient routing in MANETs: fuzzy logic or reinforcement learning? Secondly, does the combination of both paradigms ensure significant improvement? In fact, research in adaptation and hybridization in computational intelligence is receiving growing interest. Examples of recent related works include extensions of: krill herd algorithm[11–16], particle swarm optimization [17,18] and cuckoo search algorithm [19,20].