Do Birds Have Intelligence?
Scientists have argued for decades over whether wild creatures, including birds, show genuine intelligence. Some still consider the human mind to be unique, with animals capable of only the simplest mental processes. But a new generation of scientists believes that creatures, including birds, can solve problems by insight and even learn by example, as human children do. Birds can even talk in a meaningful way.
Good Memory
Some birds show quite astonishing powers of recall. A type of North American crow may have the animal worlds keenest memory. It collects up to 30,000 pine seeds over three weeks in November, and then carefully buries them for safe keeping across over an area of 200 square miles. Over the next eight months, it succeeds in retrieving over 90 percent of them, even when they are covered in feet of snow.
Making and Using Tools
On the Pacific island of New Caledonia, the crows demonstrate a tool-making, and tool using capability comparable to Paleolithic mans. Dr Gavin Hunt, a New Zealand biologist, spent three years observing the birds. He found that they used two different forms of hooked tool to pull grubs from deep within tree trunks. Other birds and some primates have been seen to use objects to forage. But what is unusual here is that the crows also make their own tools. Using their beaks as scissors and snippers, they fashion hooks from twigs, and make barbed, serrated rakes or combs from stiff leathery leaves. And they dont throw the tools away after one use--they carry them from one foraging place to another.
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