Are Crows The Smartest Birds EVER? (VIDEO, POLL)

When making a list of "smart animals," crows probably wouldn't be at the top for most people. Jane Goodall made a splash in 1960 when she showed that chimps could make tools. Well move over furry friends, there's a new animal brainiac in town.

From britannica.com:

This video below shows an astounding feat by a New Caledonian crow. In an experiment conducted by behaviorists from the University of Oxford, a small bucket of food was placed inside a tube; the crow was unable to reach the bucket because of the length of the tube. She then picked up a short length of wire, and, after a few futile attempts to snag the bucket with it, bent the wire into a hook and lifted the bucket from the tube. What's more, the crow repeated the behavior in nine out of 10 subsequent trials.

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Quick Poll

After watching this video, do you think crows are animal brainiacs?

I'm pretty friggin' impressed.

That's cool, but I don't think it compares with chimps.

I'm glad they can make tools, but I wish they weren't so loud!

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Comments

[stepintothelight]

Leave twenty crows alone in a room with tywroters and in twenty minutes they will type out

"Professional wrestling is fake"

[Alternoid]

Intelligence is a tool of consciousness.

[Xavier Ninnis]

"When making a list of 'smart animals,' crows probably wouldn't be at the top for most people."

What an insultingly hackneyed and lazy way to have begun this essay.

Anyone who's the type to give even slight consideration the question of animal intelligence, or who has simply chanced to spend a bit of time casually observing crows, ravens or jays, would already be well aware that the Corvids, along with those other avian Einsteins, the Psittaciformes (parrots, cockatoos and the like), are widely known to among the more intelligent animals.

Talk about an author "mailing it in".

[canuck4barack]

One day I watched 8 crows playing teeter totter on a fallen twisted tree branch. They would hop on one end of it and down it would go, then they would hop on the other end. I watched for about 20 minutes as they played on the branch. They were having a great time amusing themselves and crowing uproariously. I wish I had had a video camera with me. It was truly an enjoyable experience to watch.

[wm1066]

I have heard that ravens and wolves hunt in tandem. Ravens will squack when the notice game in the woods and the wolves will go and investigate and after they make the kill and carry off the what they want the ravens will get the leftovers.

[Mikeeee]

Samuel Clements made an insightful observation a few yrs ago. I'm not sure I have the wording exact, but the point is clear and concise.
"" There's an old adage that goes, "Man is the noblest creation of God". Now I wonder who found that out""?

[JScott]

But of course think about it, they always know when to perch and poop right on a newly washed car.

[TigersEye]

Great video, animals are usually more intelligent than people (who don't study them) give them credit for.

[rockyb26]

very cool. maybe they can teach my husband to procure his own food too

[CoolerHeads]

Every time I hear something like, "Only humans are self-aware" "cats have no sense of cause and effect" I think "yeah, right." We are animals. They are animals. We aren't that unique.

[ipv4]

yea animals are pretty amazing, but to say that we are not unique sounds midly retarded. Who do you think built that internet you're surfing on?

[AmandaBC]

If your answer is "the US military", you're totally proving his/her point... ;)

[hark]

"Who do you think built that internet you're surfing on?"

The very smartest among us. If you shift that IQ bell curve a few points to the left, we'd have no civilization at all.

[shel3364]

That's problem-solving. Way cool.

[Balzac]

Amazing. Makes me want to read some Native American folk tales on the subject of totem animals with a bit more attention to the possibility there's a basis in reality for the intelligent behavior of the animal in the story.

[ChicagoBob]

There is a lot more to animal behavior than instinct.
Animals, generally, are intelligent, feeling, and aware.

It is good we are starting to realize this.

[carlgt1]

amazing that little birds have more compassion & sense than adult human Republicans....

[ChumpChicken]

LOL....Yes it is!

[EvoMan]

In my neck of the woods, crows hunt squirrels. At least they used to until West Nile Virus nearly wiped them out.

Their tactic? Chase a squirrel out in front of a passing car.

[Gasparilla]

And the crow's buddy was driving the car?