# Crows as smart as our Ape cousins



## GOLLUM (Aug 21, 2007)

Here's an interesting article showing the use of tools by Crows....

ScienceDaily: New Caledonian Crows Find Two Tools Better Than One


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## Talysia (Aug 21, 2007)

I heard about this, and I was delighted at the way those crows use tools to get little morsels of food.  Birds are much more intelligent than we give them credit for.


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## ice.monkey (Aug 21, 2007)

So it can't have anything to do with brain size then and consequently number of neural pathways - blows that out of the water!


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## tangaloomababe (Aug 21, 2007)

I once watched a crow trying to get a bag out of a bin, he couldn't do it on his own, he kept dropping it. A second crow came along and between the two of them they pulled the bag out of the bin, opened it up and ate the scraps inside, a third crow arrived on the scene and there were no fights, they all shared.
I have always thought crows were one very smart and very observant bird.


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## Nesacat (Aug 21, 2007)

Crows are amazing. Frighteningly united too. They attacked a man here and killed him a few years ago because he'd killed one crow. 

My mother puts food out for them and the one that arrives first never eats alone. He'll call out until others arrive and then they eat together.


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## tangaloomababe (Aug 21, 2007)

Frightening Nesa. 

 I used to feed a family of magpies, there were four of them and I fed them for years, the family grew from two to four, however this year they were invaded by a family of crows, who realized where they could get a free meal.  The magpies disappeared and even though I like crows I was so disappointed at loosing my family, I couldn't bring myself to feed the crows.  Mean spirited maybe but I still miss my magpies.


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## GOLLUM (Dec 31, 2007)

Well, I love crows, in fact my favourite movie has that in the Title....

We have plenty of crows at the local train station. They often pick into bags for food, just a shame the mess they leave behind.


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## clovis-man (Dec 31, 2007)

tangaloomababe said:


> I once watched a crow trying to get a bag out of a bin, he couldn't do it on his own, he kept dropping it. A second crow came along and between the two of them they pulled the bag out of the bin, opened it up and ate the scraps inside, a third crow arrived on the scene and there were no fights, they all shared.
> I have always thought crows were one very smart and very observant bird.


 
I think that's why a bunch of them is called "a conspiracy of crows".

Jim


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## Culhwch (Jan 1, 2008)

I always thought it was a murder of crows, although until I read Nesa's post I thought was a little fanciful...


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## sarakoth (Jan 1, 2008)

That's surprising.

In some ways, chimpanzees exceed humans. For eaxmple, recently, a Japanese scientist proved by experiment that chimpanzees have much better short term photographic memory than humans. The trained chimps could see a flash of an image and recall it. The Japanese scientist proved it using sequences of numbers. All the chimps were taught was how to count.


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## GOLLUM (Jan 1, 2008)

Culhwch said:


> I always thought it was a murder of crows, although until I read Nesa's post I thought was a little fanciful...


I've only ever known it to be  'a murder' myself.


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## clovis-man (Jan 1, 2008)

GOLLUM said:


> I've only ever known it to be 'a murder' myself.


 
You are correct. Don't know where I got "conspiracy". Although I do like alliterations now and then. Ravens, OTOH, are an "unkindness" I think.

Jim


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## Rohan (Jan 1, 2008)

I think all of the following can be used for ravens:

A conspiracy of ravens
An unkindness of ravens
A constable of ravens

Bird group names are really rather excellent, IMO. Excellence example: A pitying of turtledoves.


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## Rosemary (Jan 3, 2008)

Very interesting article, thank you Precioussss.  They really are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.
Not sure which bird it was but they actually use the cars on the road to run over the hard fruit so they can get to the kernal!  I also understand that some crows and ravens can also mimic other bird calls...


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## clovis-man (Jan 3, 2008)

Rosemary said:


> I also understand that some crows and ravens can also mimic other bird calls...


 
Ravens can mimic human speech also. When I was a boy, there was a reven "belonging" to a man in our neighborhood which flew around to visit other homes and yards. My father was working on a backyard project one day and heard a voice from the trees telling him to: "Be careful what you do, now! Careful what you do!" He looked up and it was the raven watching him.

Jim


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