
Crows caught on camera making tools in the wild - Futurebot
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1223/Inventive-crows-caught-on-camera-making-tools
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flohofwoe
I've seen crows in Berlin on multiple occasions dropping chestnuts on the road
near traffic lights, wait until they are cracked open by cars driving over
them, then picking up the marrow when the traffic light goes red. Probably not
as advanced as tool usage but still impressive to watch.

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ymse
Here's a video (from Japan) about this phenomenon:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0)

I wonder whether it was discovered independently, or if it has been
communicated somehow. Or maybe they've "always" done this, except with horses
before cars.

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kaybe
When there are no cars, the strategy is to simply drop them from high onto a
hard surface (such as a road). They always fly off with their nuts when I try
to help though..

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steveax
Lots of crows and walnut trees in my 'hood. When I see a crow drop a nut into
the street when I'm out and about, I walk over and crush it. I'm hoping
someday they'll recognize me and start dropping near me when I'm walking :-)

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amelius
Interesting. But then again, I've seen spiders making tools to catch other
insects :)

~~~
tomcam
Fantastic point! Never thought about it that way! We explain it away by saying
it's "instinctive" behavior, which only kicks the can down the road.

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jjp
A little more on the research -
[http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_488900_en.ht...](http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_488900_en.html)
including why it's difficult to do this in the wild. And some earlier research
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8631486.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8631486.stm)
with video.

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dang
Other articles about this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10788174](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10788174)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10781284](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10781284).

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nether
So to what stage of human development is this comparable? How long until crows
are building computers?

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tokai
Pre cro-magnon. Give them 50 to 100 thousand years

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has2k1
You could set up monastery* where you wrap the science with sufficient
doctrine to attract great devotees __. Their real mission?, selectively breed
intelligent crows. Then vary the methods and open 10 more monasteries. That
would speed things up or fail in interesting ways.

* A conventional research lab won't do.

 __Not grad students who would only give 5 years to the cause.

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tokai
While a fun idea, I think we are already breading intelligent crows. Human
trash provides high energy food, good for developing and supporting large
brains. And the urban landscape is a complex environment with many dangers,
but high reward for the curious and smart bird.

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enraged_camel
Actually, urban environments are probably a lot safer for birds than the
wilderness. Unlike predator species, humans in cities don't actively hunt
birds. In fact many people feed them. Buildings also provide really good
shelter.

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sandworm101
Tool-using and tool-building are arbitrary distinctions. Once upon a time
scientists thought there was some magic deciding line between man and beast,
some key element found in us and no other animal. We now know that to be silly
superstition.

Intelligence is a multi-spectrum gradient. Our brains are better at calculus,
but a crow's brain can adjust for crosswind on landing better than any topgun
veteran. To say one animal is smarter or more able than another speaks only of
the adopted standard and says nothing of innate intelligence.

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pitaa
Am I the only one that found this headline confusing?

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chris_wot
Surely this is unsurprising? Nests are tools, sort of.

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Abraln
My understanding is that tools are things used as a way to achieve an
objective. Nests would BE the objective, aka shelter. Thus, an ant hill would
not be considered a tool.

