Why Crows Are as Smart as 7 Year Old Humans

In the animal kingdom, intelligence has evolved in many different ways in many different creatures. We often think of our fellow primates as topping the list of intelligence with their ability to use tools like sticks and stones to access food and with their ability to recognize themselves in mirror killer whales are also among the most intelligent with their unique language skills and orchestrated hunting techniques, and anyone who owns a dog is constantly surprised by complex feats of social intelligence and emotional sensitivity. Intelligence seems to thrive in animals like these, often carnivorous mammals that live in small social groups, but if we look at the animal world, one of the most intelligent is one that may be unexpected. an animal that is not a mammal at all, but a bird.

crows

or, more generally, corvids.

Corvids are mischievous, playful and extremely intelligent. They forage for food and to solve complex problems they even drop nuts on the road for cars to break and then pick them up with the safety of pedestrian traffic lights. They can also recognize faces and may hold a grudge against someone who is rude to them for several

year

s. They imitate the sounds they hear, and scientists have discovered that their problem-solving skills rival those of a seven-

year

-old human. How are

crows

so profoundly intelligent, and how do we even measure their intelligence in the first place? wired in the same way as mammalian intelligence or is it something completely different.

The corvid family is also known as the crow family and includes crows, jays, rooks and magpies. The level of intelligence varies between species, but scientists have discovered that the New Caledonian crow is the most intelligent for corvids than we are for the rest of the primates. In 2014, crows were presented with several tubes filled with water. With a treat floating on top that they couldn't reach in a test when presented with a treat inside a tube of water and a treat placed on top of the sand, the crows knew to drop stones into the water-filled tube. to raise the water level to reach the treat and ignored the tube with sand in the next trial when presented with a single tube of water. and objects with various densities the crows knew how to select sinking objects instead of floating ones to reach the treat when presented with two tubes with different water levels the crows knew how to drop objects into the tube with the highest water level to reach the treat faster These tests demonstrated the crows' abilities in both problem solving and tool use and the authors believe that their level of skill in deciphering and completing these tasks is similar to that of children aged five to seven years;

However, on two more challenging tasks the crows did not perform as well. one required understanding the difference between a wide and a narrow tube and another was a counterintuitive task in which the tube with the reward was connected to another tube through a hidden U-bend. The crows did not fully understand these settings, but in comparison. During tests with human children, only children around eight years old were able to consistently solve such tests and, in addition to using tools, New Caledonian crows can build tools, and not just simple ones, but with multiple parts, when given objects that were too short to retrieve food.

Starting with a puzzle box, the crows combined elements by inserting one stick into the hollow opening of another to make a tool long enough to reach the food. One crow even made three- and four-part tools. Building composite tools like this has only been observed outside of

humans

in a few captive great apes, it's usually only associated with human intelligence, and what's more, we now think crows might be better than we could have imagined at first. It's time to make plans for the future. The ability to take actions now that will give a benefit in the future is not something most animals are good at, delaying gratification and planning are high level skills, human children cannot do this and neither can many adults. that I know requires our memory of the past and foresight for future events, can crows really possess all animals?

This skill In a study published in 2020, New Caledonian crows were first shown one of three puzzle boxes they already knew how to open, each requiring a specific tool, then taken out of the testing area. for five minutes before they were presented with five different objects. tool for each of the boxes and two distractor objects, after selecting an object and waiting 10 minutes they were allowed to return to the testing area, the researchers found that the birds not only chose the correct tool that would open the puzzle box To take the tool with them to the test area, in another study, researchers presented birds with a closed box with a treat in a similar way, but this time the birds were presented with a variety of items. that included the correct tool, some distraction tools, and an immediate but less attractive food reward than the closed box, and most of the time the birds took the risk and delayed their gratification, kept the correct tool, and then opened the box with the best prize, this might seem easy to us but it is not only when human children reach the age of 5 that this ability emerges and even then it does not occur in everyone, for some it takes a few more years.

These mental abilities certainly distinguish crows from other animals with their actions and abilities more in line with the most intelligent primates. How can this bird compete with the most intelligent primates? Why does a bird need to be so intelligent even though crows may have intelligence similar to that of many primates? Bird brains and primate brains are not at all the same birds and mammals that split down the evolutionary tree 320 million years ago and since then their brains have become quite distinct from each other, making Scientists wonder exactly why corvids are so intelligent In vertebrates the pallium is the gray and white matter that covers the brain Before the evolutionary split, both birds and mammals developed a large pallium, but after their lineages They divided, the mammalian pallium evolved into a layered structure known as the cerebral cortex.

This is the most complex structure of the mammalian brain. Each layer contains nerve fibers that run horizontally and vertically, that process and transmission of information here is where many important functions take place, including learning, memory, sensory perception and conceptual thinking. Birds do not have a cerebral cortex, but a study published in 2020 found that the fibers of birds' pallium circuits are organized in a very similar way. to a mammalian neocortex with fibers that run both horizontally and vertically, the authors believe this explains where birds' intelligence comes from. Another reason birds were initially thought to be incapable of this level of intelligence was due to the small size of their brains, but it is not absolute.

The size of an animal's brain is important, but the ratio between brain and body. Crows tend to have large brains compared to their body size. In mammals, the individuals with the largest brains are

humans

and dolphins. In birds, parrots and crows. However, as scientists grew in their understanding of the brain, they discovered. It wasn't just size that mattered or even brain size relative to body size. A great defender of an animal's intelligence is the density of neurons. This is because having very compact neurons leads to better communication between them and it turns out that certain species of birds have very densely packed neurons.

In a 2016 study, researchers measured the number of neurons in several species of birds and primates and discovered that some birds, such as corvids, have twice as many neurons as primates with brains of similar size, with numbers closer to those of the largest primates, while these findings say If you show us how crows are so intelligent, the The question remains why many bird species thrive with fewer neurons and weaker mental abilities, so why did crows evolve this way? One theory is that it has to do with the way they are raised, unlike other species, corvids spend more time with their parents New Caledonian crows are fed by their parents for up to two years during this time they have ample access to role models who make and use tools and have the opportunity to use these tools themselves This extended rearing time allows skills to be developed vertically, that is, from parents to children, the family groups of many species of crow can be very close-knit and Young crows even help defend their parents' new nest of young; however, beyond tight family groups, adults of many corvid species do not lead particularly socially. lives New Caledonian crows mate for life, but otherwise do not really interact with other adults.

Other species of corvids often forage and perch in large groups or work together to harass a predator, but there is no social hierarchy or complex social bonds in these. In settings this seems to go against an important theory of intelligence called the social intelligence hypothesis. Chimpanzees, for example, live in large, complex social groups where they have to interact with others outside their immediate family and manage many relationships. It's a constant political dog game. Wolves and even killer whales have to deal with a lot of social complexity and this social intelligence needs a lot of brain power.

If the adults of many of the most intelligent corvids do not live in complex social groups, why would similar intelligence have evolved? Adult corvids rarely live in large social groups, but juveniles often do so before mating with a mating partner during their adolescence. Some species of corvids live in larger flocks, aptly called youth gangs, and these gangs work exactly as they sound: a group of teenagers get together and bully each other. others and struggle in these harrowing years, corvids like crows, for example, form many relationships that they have to manage, and interestingly, corvids may need social intelligence to interact with other species outside of Yellowstone National Park.

Certain crows have been seen interacting with wolves, especially wolves. cubs, the animals have been seen playing tug of war and the crows tease and lure the cubs to jump and grab sticks. Sometimes the crows even pull on the wolves' tails, by all accounts it looks like the animals are playing. Some scientists think that individual crows may even develop special bonds with individual wolves within a pack. This relationship building can help crows find food more easily. Kill the wolves. This propensity to interact with other species has some groups wondering how we can cooperate with corvids. One idea is to train the crows and others. corvids to collect cigarette butts or garbage.

A few different companies are developing devices that will autonomously train birds by giving them a treat once they place trash in the device. A theme park in France has already been carrying out a similar operation. They trained six rooks to pick up trash four days a week under the supervision of the park's falconer. Although it seems like we are taking advantage of these birds and their intelligence by asking them to do something we should already be doing ourselves, those involved seem to have good intentions, help the environment teaches humans to cooperate with other species and teaches the public about these intelligent creatures by studying other intelligent species and what made them that way.

Scientists have gained a better understanding of the brain and its development, and for all we know, we might be overlooking other species. species with small brains that could harbor higher intelligence other animals that can help us unlock the many secrets of the brain I love talking about animal intelligence on this channel because I love the way the brain works I love its mysteries and its incredible power and by I love the feeling of learning, of understanding new concepts, of those moments of sudden understanding that come over you when physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology begin tofit in, feeling like a beautiful interconnected machine that explains our universe and I would like to think that crows also feel this when they take their treat out of the tube and to get involved in learning stems I use shiny shiny is an amazing tool to learn stems interactively the Quizzes, puzzles, and downright charming animations make learning engaging and almost feel like a game. and if you get stuck on a particular question, brilliant doesn't penalize you or impede your progress, but instead provides a detailed explanation to guide you to the correct answer so you can learn from your mistakes.

It's easy to learn in this low pressure. environment and most importantly it is easy to learn by doing, there are many courses to dive into, from neural networks to algorithms, logic and probability or my new favorite scientific thought, nature is a puzzle and in this course you will learn about the principles of physics and engineering playing with mechanics, energy and light in lots of interactive puzzles to get started for free, visit shiny.org real science or click the link in the description and the first 200 people will get 20 off the shiny annual premium subscription and if you're looking for something else to watch right now, you can watch our previous video about the jellyfish that lives forever or watch the latest real engineering video about how engineering solved the mystery of the accident of Concord.