Transcription
Translator: Sanntint Tint Reviewer: Moon Thit
In a 2500-year-old Aesop fable, a crow searches for water. The crow spots a pitcher and discovers water inside, but the water is out of reach. Soon, the crow drops pebbles into the pitcher. One by one, as the pebbles displace the water, the crow quenches its thirst. Interestingly, this story seems remarkably accurate. In a 2014 experiment, scientists placed a food reward in a partially filled tube and observed crows, one after another, dropping stones into it until the water level rose high enough for the crow to reach the food with its beak. This is just one of many fascinating displays of intelligence from the corvid family, which includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies.
To speak frankly, corvids are strategic when it comes to their food. They rummage through trash cans and steal from other birds' beaks. They also cache and hoard food. For example, a nut-cracking crow is estimated to have dispersed about 30,000 pine seeds in over 2,000 hidden locations and retrieved them after more than nine months. In one experiment, after hiding grubs and peanuts, they retrieved the perishable grubs first, leaving the peanuts for later. Jays seem to remember not only where they buried their caches but also when and what they buried. Furthermore, experiments show that scrub jays will cache food when they know it won't be available the next day, indicating they can plan for future events.
The capabilities of corvids extend beyond preparing for food. In one experiment, a masked person captured a wild crow and released it. When the masked person returned, the crows attacked this person. However, if the person wore a different mask, they were ignored, suggesting that crows can distinguish and remember different human facial features. Crows gather around the bodies of deceased companions and exhibit a behavior that is sometimes compared to a funeral. One study showed that crows are more hesitant to return to a place where they saw a deceased companion, suggesting they associate it with danger.
New Caledonian crows, for instance, show an impressive aptitude for reasoning and tool use. Even in the wild, they shape sticks into hook-like tools for food. Some Japanese crows have been observed dropping nuts onto roads, waiting nearby for passing cars to crush them, and then retrieving the rewards. However, crows also do things that are harder to explain. Sometimes, they practice caching or bring unusual items that might help them give gifts to companions. They have been observed sliding repeatedly on plastic covers on roofs. Engaging in such activities is quite common, especially in young crows. Crows have a longer developmental period than other songbirds. It is believed that play encourages learning and lays a solid foundation for their intelligent behavior.
Some researchers believe that cunning is important in the social life of crows. They breed in flocks, live and communicate in large, active groups, share food, and mob predators. Some have lifelong companions who remember, track, and respond to their companions, even predicting each other's behavior and desires. Today, scientists believe that crows are among the most intelligent animals, a significant step away from where they were once widely considered. In the late 1800s, German scientist Ludwig Edinger compared primate and crow brains, dismissing cognitive abilities and interpreting the crow's brain structure as primitive. This was a misinterpretation. For example, a raven has a brain that appears quite different from a capuchin monkey's, being about one-third the size. However, both animals have the same number of neurons in the pallium, a brain region associated with cognition. Therefore, even though crow brains have undergone a very different evolutionary path compared to primate brains, this has still enabled them to achieve complex cognition.
The next time you see a crow, you can be sure of its intelligence. Don't give it a reason to remember you badly.