Within the intelligence of the animal world, it highlights a unique figure: crows, their ability to plan, create tools and inhibit their impulses to obtain greater benefits puts their cognitive performance at the same level as that of great apes. Corvids are enigmatic and fascinating creatures that defy our logic.
When Edgar Allan Poe published his poem The Crow in 1845, he decided to place his prophetic animal on the bust of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy and science. The image was not accidental and thus managed to create one of the most revealing and revealing. surprising poetic compositions in the history of literature.
- Indeed.
- If for centuries crows have been associated with an ominous animal.
- It is not only because of their black plumage.
- What interests us most is their undeniable intelligence.
- And not only that.
- Some of the corvids are also able to articulate certain words.
- Which they learn by simple imitation in contact with humans.
When Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland, he raised one of those unanswered questions from the mouth of the mad hatter who said: What does a crow look like on a desk?We don’t have an answer yet. However, Carroll would have been much more successful if another more interesting question had been asked: What do crows look like in humans?
In that case, what could we find out would leave us speechless?
As scientists reveal, crows are self-aware, able to solve problems logically and create tools.
In the intelligence of the animal world, the great primates are undoubtedly distinguishable; now, if there is one thing that for centuries has shown that humans share common spaces with crows, it is that many of their behaviors are comparable to people’s intelligence.
In fact, as a study published in the journal Science and conducted at Lund University reveals, crows exhibit cognitive processes very similar to those of an 8-year-old.
The crow is one of the few animals that is fully aware of itself and has also always caught the attention of scientists on one fundamental aspect: recognizing themselves in the mirror.
Goethe University, for example, applied a small patch to the feathers of these birds and, as soon as they discovered this “anomaly” upon seeing their image reflected, they immediately began to remove this strange element.
In addition, crows are also known to form complex social groups where there are clear leaders and, in turn, make common decisions to solve problems, seek food, and even commit “murders. “Sometimes the group may decide to delete a member if it considers that this is neither respectful nor useful to this small society.
Within the intelligence of the animal world, that of the crow is one of the most monopolized studies. The Institute of Neurobiology at the University of Tubinga, for example, published a number of very revealing data on the brains of these birds a few years ago. .
Although they do not have a neocortex like ours, they have an area called caudolateral nidopalium that bears great similarities to our prefrontal cortex. The neural density of this structure is immense. All of this would show that crows have a very refined thinking and the ability to perform executive functions.
A very classic example of this is what has been observed in Japan, in this country crows have learned to bring nuts to pedestrian crossings when the traffic light is green, wait for cars to crush them and pick them up when the traffic light stays green again. David Attenborough himself talked about it in a documentary.
When it comes to understanding intelligence in the animal world, the same questions always arise: what do we really mean by intelligence?, is an animal intelligent only to show original behavior when it comes to finding food ?, because scientists say that in addition to executive functions, there must be two other dynamics: the ability to create tools and the ability to suppress instincts.
As impressive as it may seem, crows demonstrate these skills, for example, these birds have been observed to have a high capacity for self-control, suppress their instincts, and delay bounty collection if they know they can earn bigger rewards in the long run.
A study published in the journal Science showed how crows are built. to get food: do they make hooks, pulleys, you know how to use ropes?
What fascinates researchers the most is that they don’t have to learn from trial and error, crows look and know what to do from the beginning, that’s amazing. In fact, one of the best experts in corvid intelligence, Dr. Joshua Klein, saw that many of these birds stored pieces they had found to place in food vending machines.
In conclusion, it should be noted that there is still much darkness in our knowledge of animal intelligence, we are talking about an area full of wonderful and wonderful information with which we can learn much more about some of these species that live with us.
Crows are birds that watch us from above, observe us and silently learn our behaviors to reap the benefits.