[LINK] "Clever Crows Use Tools in New Way"

[rfmcdonald]

I've noted, back in first noted in August 2009 and again in September 2010, the impressively high level of intelligence among some corvids, particularly the New Caledonian crow of the South Pacific. They form complex social structures; they transmit cultural elements; they pass the "mirror test" for self-awareness; they make tools. Now, Wired Science's Brandon Keim reports, it turns out that New Caledonian crows can use the same tools in different ways.

With the simple act of using twigs to poke a rubber spider, New Caledonian crows may have become the first birds to join an exclusive cognitive class.

Using tools in multiple ways, and not just to get food, was once considered a singularly human ability. Then chimpanzees, other primates and elephants proved able. But if flexible tool use wasn’t uniquely human, it did seem limited to mammals.

“There is no species of bird that has been recorded using tools for more than one function,” said zoologist Joanna Wimpenny of the University of Sheffield.

[. . .]

Sequential tool use in particular is considered a possible sign of high-level cognitive powers: understanding causality, analogizing, planning. Whether the birds in fact possess these powers, or happen to be instinctively good at a narrow range of tasks, is inconclusive, but flexible tool use would suggest something more than simple instinct.

“If tools are employed flexibly and for a variety of innovative purposes, then conventional combinations of inherited predispositions and associative learning are challenged and interesting questions emerge,” wrote the researchers.

According to Wimpenny, the researchers first wondered about multitool use after their crows used twigs to poke at, among other things, an especially gaudy pair of pants.

To study this more rigorously, 10 of the birds were presented with a variety of objects, from a Frisbee and a Hawaiian bracelet to a rubber spider and rubber snake.

Again and again, the crows used twigs to poke the objects. While the researchers note that the birds may have been searching for food, they acted very differently than while foraging.

“It’s very difficult to know exactly why they would use tools to contact objects, but we think the most plausible explanation is not that they saw them as a food source,” said Wimpenny.

And there is the final paragraph: "As for crows in other parts of the world, only New Caledonians are known to make tools in their natural habitat. “But in terms of general cognitive processes, the speed of learning and innovation, general problem-solving mechanisms, I think they’re pretty uniform,” said Wimpenny. “The crow that you might see out in your garden, might have the same abilities.”"

So. When you see a crow, the odds seem to be quite good that someone is looking back at you.