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October 13, 2005
Crows use Tools!
New Caledonian crows are known to make and use complex tools in the wild (Hunt, 1996; 2000). We are investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of these natural tool using abilities in a colony of captive crows.
In the wild, the crows make a wide variety of tools from a number of different materials, and we have found that they will also readily do so in captivity, even with unfamiliar materials. They usually remove the leaves and side branches from twigs, and also make tools from other bits of material they find, such as their own moulted feathers (by removing the barbs), cardboard (by tearing it into strips), and leaves. They are even able to use techniques which would not work with natural materials to manufacture a tool for a particular task.
(YOU NEED QUICKTIME TO VIEW THE MOVIE)
This movie shows the seventh trial of the experiment described in Weir et al. (2002, Science, 297(5583)) in which Betty bends a piece of wire to form a hook, and then uses the hook to remove the bucket containing food from the tube. At the beginning of the clip, the female crow is already holding the straight wire in her beak, as she picked it up at the start of the trial but was immediately displaced by the male.
Read about all the other ongoing experiments and view more movies!
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Posted by sue at October 13, 2005 09:15 AM
Comments
WAY COOL!!! The second issue of Nature's Corner Magazine will be concentrating on the issue of tool use across many animal species (Birds are animals too!). This will include crows, gorillas, greys and MANY MORE!!!
Maggie-
Publisher
www.naturescornermagazine.com
Posted by: Maggie at October 13, 2005 09:58 AM