Turns out crows are far smarter than we thought!

[krakenslayer]

As a species, they are already considered more intelligent than dogs, but now it's looking like they maybe be even smarter. We already know that they can manipulate objects in their environment to gain better access to food or water, for example, dropping stones into a narrow drainpipe to raise the water level high enough for them to reach it.

Now it's been discovered that they can use tools for multiple purposes. Check out this link and have a look at the video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9353000/9353588.stm

Fascinating stuff. This puts them on an intellectual level higher than most primates.

[AcesandEights]

Turns out crows are far smarter than we thought!

It's only because they eat the eyes of dead men and peer into their souls to steal the secrets of mancraft.


Fascinating stuff. This puts them on an intellectual level higher than most primates.

Yup, very cool! Anyone know how crows fare with the mirror test? I can't recall.

[MikePizzoff]

Very awesome. I would never expect something like this from a bird. I suppose their mortality rate is lower than most other birds?

What's the mirror test?

EDIT: Is that when they find out if the bird thinks the mirror is an extension of the real world?

[krakenslayer]

Yup, very cool! Anyone know how crows fare with the mirror test? I can't recall.

Pretty well: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLF67694120080819

---------- Post added at 06:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 PM ----------

Yeah, the mirror test involves playing the animal with a mirror and seeing how it reacts. If it seems to act in way consistent with meeting another member of its species, then it is presumed to lack self-awareness and metacognition. If, however, it quickly recognises that every move it makes is copied by the reflection and stops bothering with it, then it shows that the animal is self-aware of its own existence, appearance and shows some metacognition.

[Mr. Clean]

Our magpies as ballsie little bastards. We had a squirral in the yard feeding one day. 1 on 1 the magpie wouldn't do anything but once a few more magpies pop in they start bullying the squirral. Same with my cat. They keep a little more distance though from the cat. Still get alot closer than I would if I was a bird.

[Danny]

not news to me, There crafty bastards, ever seen a nest full of shiny shit they nicked? crafty.

[rightwing401]

Oh yes, crows are very clever little sob's.

When my dad was really young, he took a young crow from its nest and kept it in my grandparent's garage. My grandmother used to tell me how, her words, 'that damn little bastard', would always fly out of its nest and wait on a shelf near the garage door when my granddad would leave for work, and fly out when the door opened. It would disappear all day, never coming back. But roughly around dusk, pretty much the routine time my granddad would get home, she would see the crow appear and wait on the garage roof until granddad opened the door.

Almost always, it had some kind of shiny thing it brought back. She told me the last straw for her was when it appeared one evening with a rather expensive looking watch in its beak. She said that about a half hour after the crow took the watch into its nest, a guy came knocking on the door, asking if she had seen a big black bird flying around. Next day, she blindfolded it and drove about twenty minutes from the house, and just threw it in the woods. My grandmother told me she was very mad when the crow showed up that evening at roughly the same time.

She tried several times more to get ride of the crow in the same way. Every day it kept coming back. So I asked her how she finally got ride of it, her reply was "I finally drove that little bastard so far away it had no damn idea where the hell it was to find its way back."

[Danny]

She tried several times more to get ride of the crow in the same way. Every day it kept coming back. So I asked her how she finally got ride of it, her reply was "I finally drove that little bastard so far away it had no damn idea where the hell it was to find its way back."

knowing how birds navigate i'm guessing that place was a potato sack at the bottom of a river.

[blind2d]

"Crows, eh? Yeah, right smarmy lil' buggers, aren't they? Can't compare to ravens, though. I mean, yeah, hearts of darkness... all that. I miss Cortez... what happened to 'im?" - Murdoc
"I dunno... din't 'e die, or sumfink?" - 2D
"Nah... he's just, er... run off..." - Murdoc
Awesome story, rightwing. (broken wing. Nirvana. good band.) Thanks for sharing.