New Caledonian Crows Can Combine Objects to Construct New Compound Tools

Sci-News.com ^ | Oct 29, 2018 | News Staff / Source

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Assemblage of different components into novel functional and maneuverable tools has, until now, only been observed in apes, and anthropologists regard early human compound tool manufacture as a significant step in brain evolution.

Children take several years before creating novel tools, probably because it requires anticipating properties of yet unseen objects.

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In the study, Dr. Kacelnik and colleagues presented eight wild-caught New Caledonian crows with a puzzle box they had never encountered before, containing a small food container behind a door that left a narrow gap along the bottom.

Initially, the scientists left some sufficiently long sticks scattered around, and all the birds rapidly picked one of them, inserted it through the front gap, and pushed the food to an opening on the side of the box. All eight birds did this without any difficulty.

In the next steps, the team left the food deep inside the box but provided only short pieces, too short to reach the food.

These short pieces could potentially be combined with each other, as some were hollow and others could fit inside them.

In one example, they gave the birds barrels and plungers of disassembled hypodermic syringes. Without any help or demonstration, four of the crows partially inserted one piece into another and used the resulting longer compound pole to reach and extract the food.

At the end of the five-step investigation, the researchers made the task more difficult by supplying even shorter combinable parts, and found that one bird particular bird, ‘Mango,’ was able to make compound tools out of three and even four parts.

“The finding is remarkable because the crows received no assistance or training in making these combinations, they figured it out by themselves,” said study co-lead author Dr. Auguste von Bayern, from the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology and University of Oxford.

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New Caledonian crow

The New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) is an all-black, medium-sized member of the family Corvidae, native to New Caledonia.

The bird is often referred to as the ‘qua-qua’ due to its distinctive call.

It eats a wide range of food including many types of invertebrates, eggs, nestlings, small mammals, snails, nuts and seeds.

The New Caledonian crow sometimes captures grubs in nooks or crevices by poking a twig at the grub to agitate it into biting the twig, which the crow then withdraws with the grub still attached. This method of feeding indicates the New Caledonian crow is capable of tool use.

They are able to make hooks.[2] T

his species is also capable of solving a number of sophisticated cognitive tests which suggest that it is particularly intelligent.[3][4][5]

As a result of these findings, the New Caledonian crow has become a model species for scientists trying to understand the impact of tool use and manufacture on the evolution of intelligence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonian_crow

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Full video (2:48 min)
Crows using compound tools:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EryZPmOxwC0

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Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow

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[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

They are smarter than many libs and Holyweird types.

[BeauBo]

CROWS

Quite the compound tool.

[Kickass Conservative]

Looks like it's time to update the beginning Scenes in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

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[dsrtsage]

The crows were calling his name., thought Caw

[DannyTN]

Next they will be building nests.

[DannyTN]

Next they will be building nests.

[antidemoncrat]

Amazing that they are actually smarter than a lot of politicians in this country.

[Snickering Hound]

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[Buckeye McFrog]

I thought New Caledonian Crows was a rugby team.