The story of "crow drinking water" comes from Aesop's Fables, which shows that crows have always been regarded as "smart" animals. This impression of crows has a long history.
Introduction to crow
Crow refers to some kinds of crow birds, whose whole body or most feathers are dark black, commonly known as "crow".
Bald-nosed crow is the most common species in rural areas of China. Their feathers are black with purple metallic luster. The mouth is long and thick, the base is bald, and there is no feather to cover the nostrils, so it is called a bald-nosed crow.
In winter, bald-nosed crows are often mixed with other crows. Hundreds of crows fly around and sing nonstop, which makes people feel sad and bored, so they are considered ominous birds.
Bald-nosed crows nest in high trees in droves. A tree can have up to 30 crow nests, and there are as many as 1200 nests abroad. Nesting materials are collected by males, and males and females nest together. The bird's nest is rough and shaped like a laundry basket. Each nest lays five or six eggs, which are hatched by females. The incubation period is 16 days-18 days. After hatching, the young birds are fed by their parents together, and fly out of the nest after 29 -30 days to feed themselves.
In spring, bald-nosed crows often gather in large groups to peck at the sown corn. Sorghum and peanuts are also harmful to seedlings; But from May to July, with the increase of the number of insects, they mainly eat agricultural pests and bring them back to their nests to feed their young birds. In autumn, crows are harmful to crops. After the autumn harvest, they peck at the grains scattered in the fields and underground pests all winter.
Besides bald-nosed crows, white-necked crows, western Western jackdaw crows and small-billed crows are also common.
Crows are better at guessing other people's intentions than gorillas.
A new study proves that crows have the same perceptual ability as primates, and their "intelligence" is not inferior to chimpanzees and gorillas. This research report was jointly completed by two researchers from the Department of Animal Behavior and Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK, and published in Science on February 65438+February 10.
Crows are smarter than we know.
Birds stand on the nest and let angry opponents spray formic acid on them. Birds stained with formic acid can use this "natural insecticide" to kill parasites.
Crows who live in urban areas and eat carrion are used to crushing nuts for them with the help of passing cars on the road. When the pedestrians disperse, you can pick up the broken fruit and have a good meal.
In the world of birds, crows, ravens and scorpions are not "stupid birds without intelligence", on the contrary, they are generally regarded as "smart" animals. The human impression of crows seems to have a long history. Even in Aesop's Fables, a story of "a crow drinking water" was woven.
Nowadays, scientists' research proves that crows are smarter than people think. A new study proves that crows have the same perceptual ability as primates, and their "intelligence" is not inferior to chimpanzees and gorillas. This research report was jointly completed by two researchers from the Department of Animal Behavior and Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK, and published in Science on February 65438+February 10.
Small body, but developed brain.
Compared with the body, the crow's brain is quite large. Researchers Emily and Clayton wrote in the report: "Compared with their bodies, their brains are very large, which is similar to chimpanzees."
Scientists pointed out in the report that although the brain structures of crows and primates are very different, they both use tools to solve similar problems, and they can imagine and predict possible future events. All these arguments are based on existing research.
To enjoy food, crows use tools.
"These studies have found that crows are not only the owners of birds (except perhaps some parrots) in terms of intelligence, but their intelligence level is even as good as that of some primates." Emily and Clayton think so.
Scientists have proved by experiments. They keep crows in cages in the laboratory. There is a bottle with a narrow mouth, and there is a small iron drum with rings in it, which contains delicious food. Crows can't eat food directly, but there are two wires with moderate thickness in the cage, one is straight and the other is hooked.
Something amazing happened. After a while, the crow learned to hang the iron drum with hooked wire and eat the food inside. What is more interesting is the fifth experiment, in which scientists only left a straight wire without bending. At this time, the crow used the support of the floor to bend the wire into a hook with his feet, and then hung the small iron drum in the bottle with the wire in his mouth and enjoyed lunch happily.
This new discovery is shocking. "New Scottish Crow" can make tools!
According to previous researchers, crows and gorillas are using complex methods to "think" about their social and natural environment, but it is not certain whether chimpanzees and crows can understand how tools work. Perhaps they only occasionally find those tools useful. However, after studying the "New Scottish Crow" in the South Pacific, scientists have come to another conclusion, that is, crows do not use tools occasionally, but actually make tools.
The new Scottish crow made two very different tools to find food. They hooked bugs out of tree holes with hooks made of branches. They also carefully carved hard leaves into sharp tools with their beaks and rummaged among them.
Jackie Chamber, a British ornithologist, said that this ability to make and use complex tools is very rare in wild animals. Emily and Clayton associate Crowe's works with the first technological invention of mankind. Some scientists have also found that different New Scottish crows make different tools, so they think they have a certain cultural form.
Some crows can "guess" the same kind with their past experiences and memories.
Now, more scientists believe that animals are becoming more and more intelligent, not because of physiological needs, but because of social needs. Group life is a complicated matter. In order to optimize individuals, they need to know exactly what will happen in the world, while dolphins and chimpanzees (including humans) become animals with great brains and intelligence. New research shows that crows are also such socialized animals.
Emily and Clayton studied western crows. Once this bird finds other birds hiding food somewhere, they will steal it. Not only that, because of the experience of stealing food, crows also learned to guard against theft. When they want to store their food, they will cover it carefully to prevent it from being stolen by other animals.
Laboratory experiments show that if a "habitual thief" is seen by other birds when burying food, it will secretly return to transfer food, and ordinary birds will not be so cunning.
Researchers say that these behaviors of western crows show that they can guess other people's intentions, in other words, they can enter the hearts of other birds, which proves that they have the ability to imagine. In the report, Emory and Clayton said: "Western crows may have imagination, because they need to remember the relevant social environment in the past, use their own experience as thieves to guess the behavior of other thieves, and then find the safest course of action to protect their stolen food."
The study of western crows is helpful to uncover the mystery of human intelligence mechanism.
John pierce, a psychologist at Cardiff University in Wales, said that the research on similar cognitive abilities of apes has not yielded any definite results. He said: "The study of western crows strongly proves that animals can understand the thoughts of other animals."
Pierce believes that the study of such animals can reveal the mystery of the basic mechanism of human intelligence. He said: "Language has always been regarded as one of the most important dividing lines between animals and human intelligence. It is worth noting that western crows have no language, and research shows that they have many intellectual abilities that humans have. This shows that the intellectual ability that we used to think needed language may not actually need language, which makes us have to think about our ability in different ways. "
Scientists also defend the image of crows.
Scientists believe that this clever bird is really wrong to associate crows with evil. In fact, in the world of crows, collective interests are paramount, and their black feathers are pure and loyal. Crowe strictly abides by monogamy and is a typical feminist. Raising young birds is always the responsibility of both husband and wife. If we humans are really smart, maybe we should study these old crows better.
References:
Small Language Resource Network Beijing Science and Technology News