2018-06-30, 09:40 PM
Pretty amazing!
Crows can make tools from memory and improve on their designs over time. Experts from Cambridge and Auckland universities put crows to the test by training the birds to construct shapes from cardboard, receiving (...)
BBC News covers this:
Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence'
Crows can make tools from memory and improve on their designs over time. Experts from Cambridge and Auckland universities put crows to the test by training the birds to construct shapes from cardboard, receiving (...)
BBC News covers this:
Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence'
Quote:A small South Pacific island is home to a crow with remarkable abilities that have scientists hooked. New Caledonian crows make and use tools - including a kind of fishing hook.https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44654098
They can solve complex problems and have even been recorded capturing grubs by repeatedly poking them with a stick until they are so agitated, they bite. Now, an experiment using a vending machine specifically designed for crows has revealed something about how intelligence evolves.
(...)
Scientists who have studied these birds for years say they have already revealed the very earliest stages of innovation. Of his own insights into the animals' abilities, Prof Christian Rutz, from University of St Andrews, has said: "When I see these crows making hooked tools, I have a glimpse of the very foundations of a technology that is evolving."