Thursday, 5 July 2018

Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence'



29 June 2018


A small South Pacific island is home to a crow with remarkable abilities that have scientists hooked.

New Caledonian crows make and use tools - including a kind of fishing hook.

They can solve complex problems and have even been recorded capturing grubs by repeatedly poking them with a stick until they are so agitated, they bite.

Now, an experiment using a vending machine specifically designed for crows has revealed something about how intelligence evolves.

The "vending experiment" is the latest in an ongoing investigation into these birds' abilities. They are so remarkable that scientists have a special aviary in New Caledonia, where they can keep wild birds for only a few days and test their problem-solving prowess, before releasing them back into the forest.


No comments:

Post a Comment