New Caledonian crows can create tools from multiple parts
An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Oxford has revealed that New Caledonian crows are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes. The new study, published today in Scientific Reports , shows that these birds can create long-reaching tools out of short combinable parts - an astonishing mental feat. Assemblage of different components into novel functional and manoeuvrable tools has, until now, only been observed in apes, and anthropologists regard early human compound tool manufacture as a significant step in brain evolution. Children take several years before creating novel tools, probably because it requires anticipating properties of as yet unseen objects. Such anticipation, or planning, is usually interpreted as involving creative mental modelling and executive functions. The study demonstrates that this species of crow possesses highly flexible abilities that allow them to solve complex problems involving anticipation of the properties of objects they have never seen. Watch Tumulte, Jungle and Mango create and use compound tools: 'The finding is remarkable because the crows received no assistance or training in making these combinations, they figured it out by themselves,' said Auguste von Bayern, from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Oxford.
