For the first time, Swedish scientists have filmed crows threading a twig through the holes of objects to carry them away together.
The find was made in experiments with a group of New Caledonian ravens (Corvus moneduloides), which stand out for their excellent instrumental abilities. It has been previously shown that they can even use a wand to remove an inaccessible item from the box. Now a couple of birds have come up with a convenient way of carrying objects, stringing them on a stick.
In an article published by the journal Animal Cognition, Ivo Jacobs and colleagues at Lund University note that this is the first time this behavior has been recorded in animals other than humans. At the same time, scientists were able to observe four such examples at once in several birds and over several days. In some cases, they used a trick to carry them away at once, and in one it allowed to raise a wooden washer, too large for a crow to grab it with its beak.
Tools and weights used in the raven challenge
Photo: Jacobs et al., 2016
The authors believe that such a complex skill reflects the high intellectual and cognitive abilities of the ravens. However, the question of whether they use this technique in vivo remains open.