Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

Post by newman8r » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:26 AM UTC

scotth wrote: post #40

newman8r wrote: post #38

When I was ~10 years old, I found a fake decorative crow (Halloween stuff) and I figured out that I could jump up and down with the fake crow and it would only be a matter of time before a few real crows would start circling... 15 minutes later there would be 100 circling, then thousands. It became a party trick that I'd show friends every now and then.

Why do you think they were interested?

Post by User23 » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:27 AM UTC

duelingjello wrote: post #8

burtonator wrote: post #6

Crows are amazingly intelligent animals. My GF and I went to the beach about a month ago and took our dog. The crows weren't frightened at ALL of our dog. They realized they could basically just 'float' up in the air when he came by using the breeze. The fact that they were amazingly calm about it was really telling. Second. We hid our stuff under a blanket. They realize it's still there as they have item persistence…

Yeap. Food and valuables have to be toddler-proofed around crows. They can also steal your wallet or your keys if you leave them unsecured. And, damn, they're as good as human thieves at reading situations for opportunism.

Post by Tepix » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:29 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #14

This article focuses mostly on problem solving, planning, and tool use as the primary hallmarks of intelligence. But what problem does writing a poem solve? Do you have to be intelligent to write a great poem? What about the intelligence need to compose a great whale song[1]? Or paint a great painting? These are things not measured on intelligence tests and that don't fit well in to scientific experiments because the…

Post by axegon » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:32 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #25

Previously I heard about crows in Japan leaving nuts on the way of the cars to crash them when traffic lights are red and collecting them the next cycle. This summer I witnessed the exact same thing when I was driving through a particularly jammy traffic light here in Europe. Are these crows inventing the method over and over again independently, like scientists finding the same thing at the same time in different pa…

Post by mettamage » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:35 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #25

Previously I heard about crows in Japan leaving nuts on the way of the cars to crash them when traffic lights are red and collecting them the next cycle. This summer I witnessed the exact same thing when I was driving through a particularly jammy traffic light here in Europe. Are these crows inventing the method over and over again independently, like scientists finding the same thing at the same time in different pa…