2020-07-01, 10:53 PM
New Caledonian Crows Are Even Smarter and Scarier Than We Thought
Peter Hess
Peter Hess
Quote:As humans, we love to think we have a monopoly on brain power. But the more we learn about the culture and intellectual capacity displayed by our super freaking intelligent animal relatives like chimps, dolphins, and birds, the less unique human intelligence starts to appear. Crows, in particular, are smart as heck: They make tools out of sticks, and even spontaneously make tools without being taught. New research could deepen this picture even more, as researchers have found that crows may possess mental capabilities that we didn’t think were possible.
In a 2018 paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of researchers showed evidence that New Caledonian crows, which have been observed making several types of tools out of sticks, may be able to build tools from memory — even if they have only seen the tool itself and haven’t ever seen the tool being constructed. This suggests that crows can form a “mental template” of tools based on other crows’ tools and their own past tools, which would explain why New Caledonian crows’ tools could have improved over time.