Remember Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Pitcher"?
It turns out the some crows can indeed solve certain puzzles involving principles of physics.
From the Washington Post:
A species of crow native to islands east of Australia has long wowed scientists with its intelligence, and now it has shown it can solve at least one science puzzle as well as the average 7-year-old child, scientists reported last week .Read the entire article HERE.
The New Caledonian crows (Corfus moneduloides) are the only nonprimates that make tools in the wild. The birds break off twigs and trim them, and tear off barbed leaves to use as hooks to dig for insects. In the lab, they have bent wires to retrieve out-of-reach food.
In the new study, scientists captured six of the crows and challenged them with a task inspired by an ancient Greek fable by Aesop known as the “Crow and the Pitcher,” in which a thirsty crow confronts a pitcher whose water level is too low for it to reach and so drops in stones to raise the level.
[...]
In their understanding of physics — how objects displace water — the crows were comparable to children between the ages of 5 and 7, the researchers said. In particular, the crows seemed to understand the different effects of hollow and solid objects...
Clearly, crows are not birdbrains! A pity that we can't say the same about some human beings. Heh.
Mocking Jays are not nearly as smart, nor as innocent.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
DeleteJays and crows are part of the same bird family.
For they "throw" their stones, instead of merely "dropping" them.
ReplyDeleteOn the nature of a Mocking Jay's "wisdom".
ReplyDeleteSmarter than 7 year old kids AND they know they have to work for their food. That puts them above the average leftard!
ReplyDeleteYes, in their own way, crows are diligent.
DeleteSmarter than Louie Gohmert? I think so.
ReplyDeleteI've read where crows recognize people and can tell those people after long periods of time. People who have been mean to them versus others for example.
ReplyDeleteMost animals are quite intelligent actually.
Back when I was growing up, we had a full acre of vegetable garden -- corn included. Clutters of crows post a lookout. Step out the door with a rifle in hand, and the entire flock takes flight.
ReplyDeleteThe crows found out quickly that Mom and I were not marksmen, but that Dad was a marksman who never missed a shot. Also, the crows learned that Dad was not to be feared if he was carrying anything other than a rifle.
Battling crows was a never ending task. They could decimate a corn patch -- and rows of string beans -- in a matter of days. Also, they learned to arrive silently without having the lookout give the go-ahead call.
Scarecrows did sweet little to protect our garden because the crows quickly discovered that the scarecrow was no threat.
Solution?
Kill one crow, and hang him up in the garden. Along came one crow to look over his dead buddy, then back the scout went to the clutter, which flew away and never came back as long as the dead crow was still hanging from the pole. Kill a crow not of the plaguing clutter, and at least some of the crows would continue to forage (that is, ruin the garden).
When it became illegal to fire a rifle east of a particular stream marking a border of sorts between the suburbs and the country, we had to give up on our garden.
Crows here in Northern Virginia today are bold and raucous beyond belief. They "know" that nobody is going to kill them. Their calls begin at sunrise and serve as an alarm clock.
Forget putting out any garbage foodstuffs in plastic trash bags. The crows rip the bags open and strew the trash all over the place. If one person in the neighborhood has placed food stuffs into plastic trash bags, every batch of trash bags in the neighborhood (large borders as the crows determine the borders) will be torn open -- whether there are any foodstuffs therein or not.
Heck, that's nothing. We have a lot of politicians that are almost as smart as seven year olds.
ReplyDelete