Now this is what I call one very smart crow

**bassybill** · #1 06-01-2010, 03:29 PM

Watch and be amazed.

http://www.billygreen.pwp.blueyonder...ding_trial.wmv

hover · #2 06-01-2010, 03:42 PM

!!! wow, that was pretty excellent!

**bassybill** · #3 06-01-2010, 03:44 PM

Yeah, that's what I thought. The totally deliberate way she goes about tackling the problem is pretty spooky.

Gard · #4 06-01-2010, 04:13 PM

Humans have for centuries tried to differentiate themselves from the "lower animals" by several methods, all of which have failed.

Problem solving is just the latest wall to crumble.

Brilliant bird, but there are brilliant birds - and quite a few other animals! EXAMPLE -all around us, some of us just refuse to acknowledge their existence because it threatens some false sense of superiority they have. Some people just can't handle the simple fact that they are a part of the "animal kingdom" as much as the bird in the tree or the dog sleeping at their feet.

NickMarinelli · #5 06-01-2010, 04:15 PM

In the same vane, I've always said that once dolphins develop an opposeble thumb, humans are screwed.

KeithBMI · #6 06-01-2010, 04:15 PM

Pff. Let me know when they understand calculus.

Gard · #7 06-01-2010, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeithBMI

Pff. Let me know when they understand calculus.

It's all a matter of necessity. Humans didn't need calculus until about 500 years ago, which is less than one percent of their existence.

If crows, or dogs, ever NEEDED calculus, they'd eventually develop it. The range of problems they need to solve however don't involve higher math...yet...

beelzelboss · #8 06-01-2010, 04:32 PM

Squids, if they lived for more than three years, would make better pets than most cats and dogs. If they had the lifespan of a human, they could probably take over or be like a rivaling species.

sleepytime · #9 06-01-2010, 04:41 PM

I was impressed that the bird was using a tool to perform a task. When it bent the hook onto the end, my jaw literally dropped.

geeza · #10 06-01-2010, 04:43 PM

I read a long time ago that crows were at least as smart as dogs, but this was amazing.

cookiesRfalla · #11 06-01-2010, 04:52 PM

Oh man, I love watching stuff like this. If you enjoyed this crow, watch Planet Earth, it's amazing. Animals I've never seen doing stuff I've never seen.

MatticusMania · #12 06-01-2010, 04:53 PM

I've watched crows pick dried fruit (oranges) off the ground, fly up to a telephone wire, and drop them to the street, sometimes in front of moving vehicles, in order to crack open the hard dried rind to get to whats inside.

bongomania · #13 06-01-2010, 04:58 PM

The bending trick is pretty cool for sure. But did you see those vids of the octopi walking around carrying coconut shells for protection? Apparently there are many, many examples of animals "in the wild" using tools to get food, but the octopus is the first (and so far only) example of a non-captive non-human animal using tools for a purpose unrelated to eating.

EricF · #14 06-01-2010, 04:58 PM

Very cool. Necessity is the mother of invention.

emor · #15 06-01-2010, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

I've watched crows pick dried fruit (oranges) off the ground, fly up to a telephone wire, and drop them to the street, sometimes in front of moving vehicles, in order to crack open the hard dried rind to get to whats inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0

Found another one (food suspended on a string):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8L4K...eature=related

Gopherbassist · #16 06-01-2010, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gard

Humans have for centuries tried to differentiate themselves from the "lower animals" by several methods, all of which have failed.

Problem solving is just the latest wall to crumble.

Brilliant bird, but there are brilliant birds - and quite a few other animals! EXAMPLE -all around us, some of us just refuse to acknowledge their existence because it threatens some false sense of superiority they have. Some people just can't handle the simple fact that they are a part of the "animal kingdom" as much as the bird in the tree or the dog sleeping at their feet.

I think looking at everything humans have built and everything animals haven't built prove how superior we are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

The bending trick is pretty cool for sure. But did you see those vids of the octopi walking around carrying coconut shells for protection? Apparently there are many, many examples of animals "in the wild" using tools to get food, but the octopus is the first (and so far only) example of a non-captive non-human animal using tools for a purpose unrelated to eating.

I don't think that's true. I think there are cases of monkeys using rocks to kill each other.

bongomania · #17 06-01-2010, 06:47 PM

Well, but as Douglas Adams famously observed, the animals have every reason to think they are superior... because of everything we've built, and they haven't.

MIJ-VI · #18 06-01-2010, 07:41 PM

XigXag · #19 06-01-2010, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gopherbassist

I think looking at everything humans have built and everything animals haven't built prove how superior we are.
.

Yet, if you take the average human, drop them into the wilderness (in nice weather no less) they'll be dead in three days.
That animal with a brain the size of a pea, and no hands, just made a tool. Not USED a tool, MADE a tool. Orders of magnitude different. I know people who, given all of the needed tools, cant change a tire.

sleepytime · #20 06-01-2010, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XigXag

Yet, if you take the average human, drop them into the wilderness (in nice weather no less) they'll be dead in three days.
That animal with a brain the size of a pea, and no hands, just made a tool. Not USED a tool, MADE a tool. Orders of magnitude different. I know people who, given all of the needed tools, cant change a tire.

We weren't designed to live in a wilderness, we were designed to live in a garden. And that bird couldn't change a tire either.