Archive for 'Tool Use'

The Crow and the Pitcher more than fable?

The Crow and the Pitcher, originally uploaded by AnnaleeBlysse.
Scientists believe the fable of the crow and the pitcher might have been fairly accurate given the new research showing rooks using rocks to raise the level of water where a worm resided… to bring the worm up to their level.1
They are such incredibly intelligent birds. The [...]

Rooks and tools

Researchers in the Britain may have stumbled upon something interesting about rooks that Aesop observed some two-thousand-five-hundred years before. Rooks use different size stones to raise water levels in a tube that contains a worm. Is this really a recent ‘discovery’…read Aesop’s fable The Crow and the Pitcher:
A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a [...]

Update on the New Caledonian Crows and Tools

Clever crow creates a new tool
Watch the video—it is fascinating. =)

The Social Life of Corvids

Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
The social life of corvids
Nicola S. Clayton1, and Nathan J. Emery2,
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
2Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 8AA, UK

Available online 20 August 2007.

Article Outline

Of the 120 species of birds in the corvid family, which includes [...]

Spontaneous Metatool Use by New Caledonian Crows

Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Report
Spontaneous Metatool Use by New Caledonian Crows
Alex H. Taylor1, , , Gavin R. Hunt1, Jennifer C. Holzhaider1 and Russell D. Gray1, ,
1Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Received 27 June 2007;
revised 24 July 2007;

accepted 25 July 2007.

Published online: August 16, 2007.

Available [...]

Corvid cognition

Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Nicola Clayton and Nathan Emery

aDepartment of Experimental Psychology and Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Available online 7 February 2005.

Article Outline

What is a corvid? There are just over 120 species of corvids, a family of songbirds that includes the crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws, as well [...]

Crow photos =)

YAY! Crow photos…from friends. These are the crow pictures that have been sent to me so far… =)

A Bird’s-Thigh View of Tool-Making Sheds Light on Crow

After attaching a crow-cam to the thigh of two crows, scientists realized crows are more intelligent than previously known. They can and do use tools. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me but it is an interesting read all the same.
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Crows are the Einsteins of the avian world

In the journal Current Biology, researchers conclude that the birds’ tool-use skills rival those seen among great apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas. Moreover, the birds appeared to solve the problem with reasoning rather than brute force trial and error.
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