Clever crows can use up to three tools (Video)

April 21, 2010 3:20 PM

Researchers have found that New Caledonian crows are capable of using three tools in succession in order to reach food.


Boffins from the University of Auckland set up a test to demonstrate the tool-using prowess of crows which has been seen in the wild.

In their experiment birds had to work out how to access food they could not initially reach.

This had to be done by first releasing a short string which was attached to a perch, and using this to reach a longer stick from behind bars.

The longer stick was then used to retrieve a scrap of food from within a perspex box… the scientists are now hoping the birds will write up the experiment themselves.

Professor Russell Gray, from the University of Auckland, said: "The crows needed to understand they needed the short tool on the piece of string to get the long tool, and then use the long tool to get the food."

Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers added: "This innovative use of established behaviours in novel contexts was not based on resurgence, chaining and conditional reinforcement.

"Instead, the performance was consistent with the transfer of an abstract, causal rule: ‘out-of-reach objects can be accessed using a tool’.

"This suggests that high innovation rates in the wild may reflect complex cognitive abilities that supplement basic learning mechanisms."


LINKS
University of Auckland

http://newslite.tv/2010/04/21/clever-crows-can-use-up-to-thr.html