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Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

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Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#291

> crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals. I've always found the common thought that only humans and a select few of other animals are the only ones that posses higher intelligence to be incredibly arrogant of our species. Why wouldn't they have higher…

Go to a zoo with hornbills. Are you watching them, or are they watching you?

I once went to a crocodile park in SE Asia ... where they didn't feed them apparently. You haven't lived until you hear 100 crocodiles thundering after you, as you run for your life. Closest thing to the James Bond scene in "Live and Let Die."

I've seen one over 20' long, Lolong, that had its own pool:

https://crocodilepark.ph/philippine-star/

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intelligence is one of the strongest predictors for success even among humans.

You're begging the question. You've defined what humans do as success. It's not even clear that what we do isn't complete failure (see climate change, nuclear war, etc.) Let's see if our actions keep us alive for some 160 million years.

So let’s say human behavior is failure, and animals are at least reasonably smart. We’re implying the reason why animals don’t engage in human-like behavior is that they recognize it will lead to things like climate change and nuclear war. Why are they not stopping us from destroying them along with ourselves?

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So crows could build a jumbo jet, they're just lazy? It's pretty obvious that animals lack any type of intelligence even close to human ability. It's not even in the same ballpark.

Well, humans just started to build jumbo jets in very very recent history. That’s not a very fair benchmark.

If we remove ourselves from the world and let it sit for another few million years, there might be a dog or elephant or crow society, sure. And while that’s interesting to imagine it also shows that a fair benchmark is indeed simply which species makes it there first.

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always love when reality and music collide in strange ways. It always drives my thinking into directions I don't expect.

I'm just glad he used Rocks instead of a Metal Crowbar as a Tool to fight off the badger

I thought it was a badge, but then realised it had spikes. Unfortunately the unwanted guest in my Porcupine Tree fought back, and being that this happened on the 14th of February is how I ended up calling this My Bloody Valentine.

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#296

Hopefully someone in the field will read this and be able to answer my question: I've spent a lot of time googling research about animal intelligence, and I now know a bunch of things intelligent animals can do, but I have no idea where their limits are, what they can't do. Everything published uses such... nonflexible tasks. If we're trying to measure general intelligence, why isn't anybody trying to teach corvids,…

Second time in the week I am doing this here, but I recommend you “Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?” By Frans de Waal. Maybe it can nudge you in the right direction.

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#297
post #253

Hopefully someone in the field will read this and be able to answer my question: I've spent a lot of time googling research about animal intelligence, and I now know a bunch of things intelligent animals can do, but I have no idea where their limits are, what they can't do. Everything published uses such... nonflexible tasks. If we're trying to measure general intelligence, why isn't anybody trying to teach corvids,…

This isn’t really an answer to your actual question but I’m reminded about the Aesop’s fable about the crow and the pitcher[0]. Humans have been noticing the general intelligence of crows for over 2,500 years! [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow_and_the_Pitcher

@boltefnovor just commented about a related experiment [0]

> “Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow”

> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587342

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just glad he used Rocks instead of a Metal Crowbar as a Tool to fight off the badger

I thought it was a badge, but then realised it had spikes. Unfortunately the unwanted guest in my Porcupine Tree fought back, and being that this happened on the 14th of February is how I ended up calling this My Bloody Valentine.

When all else fails, there is always a Bullet for My Valentine, luckily it was February, if it was Novembers Doom you would have been in for a Life of Agony with the only way out being a Five Finger Death Punch inside A Perfect Circle. That would have been the Story Of The Year.

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#299

Hopefully someone in the field will read this and be able to answer my question: I've spent a lot of time googling research about animal intelligence, and I now know a bunch of things intelligent animals can do, but I have no idea where their limits are, what they can't do. Everything published uses such... nonflexible tasks. If we're trying to measure general intelligence, why isn't anybody trying to teach corvids,…

Here is a video of pigeons playing "sokoban", "talking" and playing "ping pong": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKSvu3mj-14&feature=youtu.be

The main problem mentioned in the video is that pigeons don't come with a repertoire that allows them to do those tasks naturally. So, the researchers have to teach them each of the behaviors independently. The pigeons then manage to put the behaviors together, in what is arguably a display of creativity.

Re: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

#300

I have a personal experience story regarding crows. This is completely anecdotal of course but, to me, compelling. I live on an island near Seattle, very quiet and rural. We have a lot of wild life. One morning I was woke by persistent crowing by... well crows. Black Crows (not the band). Having been awoke from wonderful REM sleep I was understandably annoyed. So I went out to the street in front of my house and grab…

crows and other birds are very good at recognizing faces so they absolutely know it's you

Can they recognize person? I highly doubt it because even humans, we are very good recognizing faces, still not very good recognizing faces from another race. I know birds can recognize themselves, from feather patterns and so on. I would think the way they see us would be similar to the way we see them, they probably look the same to us.
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