You've seen Dolphins play in the surf, other animals at play. Ever seen a Crow use a sled?

[A HERETIC I AM]

#t=42

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. What the heck is that...somebodies diaphram?

[BlueToTheBone]

3. It's a jar lid.

Very cool, eh? I saw this a couple of years ago; one of my favorite. There's another one out there about a crow and a kitty who become friends. I love the crows who come to our feeders and hang out in our front yard. One day, I'll touch one.

[kardonb]

19. crow

years ago , when we lived in Iowa , we saw a crow riding an ice floe down the Mississippi River . He seemed to really enjoy the ride ; and so did we watching him .

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I don't know about you.....

But that's what I use for sliding down a roof.

[Jefferson23]

29. lol

[BlueStreak]

2. Crows are my favorite birds

They are way smarter than most birds.

A few weeks ago, we had an own hanging out near our house. A group of 5 crows teamed up to drive off that owl. They clearly were coordinating their actions, dive-bombing the owl, which was much larger and vastly more powerful than any of the crows. But they drove him off. It took about 20 minutes of coordinated attacks. It was something to behold.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. New Caledonian crows make tools

Very smart birds indeed.

[tblue37]

7. Have you seen video of the crows that place nuts on the road at

an intersection when the stoplight holds traffic still, then wait for cars to drive over the nuts and crack them open?

Then when the light changes again so the traffic stops and it's safe to do so, the crows go onto the road to collect the nutmeat.

They are using *cars* as nutcrackers!

I think the video was taken in Japan. I am on a Nook, so I can't post the video, but it should be easy to locate via Gogle.

[Cerridwen]

9. This one? (link below) The cars did not cooperate well. :)

[BlueStreak]

11. Crows are considerably smarter than your average teabagger

I love crows.

[thecrow]

18. Me too :)

Very cool videos, thanks all!

[tavalon]

23. I totally agree about their intelligence

but, man, when it's spring, they get really pissy. They will dive bomb you if they think you are a threat to their nest.

[Beacool]

12. That's one smart crow.

[tblue37]

22. This other video I am posting is of the crow I referred to, but it is a lousy video because

it has a few people blathering on about the crow, and it spends a lot of time showing the people rather than the crow.

But in this video, the crow is using the walk light as a signal to let him know it is safe to go to the road for his nut. The part where he waits for the walk signal starts at 1:02. That seems to me to be almost more impressive than coming up with the idea of using cars to crack his nuts in the first place.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Interesting. Here's another vid of a Raven getting help to remove Porcupine quills.

Ravens are pretty smart too, so I understand.

[laundry_queen]

21. Ravens are amazing.

They are like parrots in that they are able to mimic speech. I lived in an area where ravens were plentiful (and huge from picking at everyone's garbage) and they would hang around downtown where people were and they would sit and imitate what they heard. It was amazing to hear.

[0rganism]

6. i like how the crow takes the "sled" when s/he flies away

gonna try it again somewhere else

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. Yup.

"Enough of this Blue Run bullshit. I'm gonna go find a Black Diamond!"

[CatWoman]

25. wipe out!!!

[Matariki]

8. I'll never get tired of this video!

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. We share the home with two conures

They never cease to amaze us.

[rwsanders]

15. If you enjoy the video, find a copy of the book Alex and Me. You'll love it (no sarcasm).

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. I've seen many videos of Alex.

He was a fascinating creature.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. That he was. Because of Dr. Pepperdine's research with Alex

we absolutely changed completely how we treat our parrots. We treat them like small children (that will never grow up). This means we have an actual relationship with them.

Oh and perish the thought the day we do not share dinner with them. I will be in real trouble! On and our little carnivores love their chicken.

In exchange we have been rewarded with moments of real intimacy, but also of real brilliance on their part.

They are very sensitive, and yes loving, creatures.

I always wondered if one reason for Alex's early demise was due to some of the tools they used in research. Connie got really sick as a chick from metal leeching. She used to play with keys and coins. Suffice it to say, the keys and coins are completely off limits.

A bird like him should have had another thirty years in him. Though it seems he died from a heart attack.

[rwsanders]

28. According to the book,

he also had a horrible time with a fungal infection that may have cost him years.
But we are also looking at ways to work with our dog that might resemble some of that work, especially after seeing the Nova Science Now video called "How Smart Are Animals?" with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
She rings a bell to go out for potty time, but uses the same bell if she wants play, food, attention, time outside, etc. We are thinking of trying different tone bells and see if she can learn to ring one for food, out, etc.
It would be very fun.

Although I hope not all birds are that smart, we might have to finally go vegetarian. We've dropped mammals at this point, but still eat fish and poultry.

[Beacool]

16. Cool!!!

It looks like its having great fun with his little sled.

[hatrack]

24. Corvids in general are just way smart . . .

I remember reading an article back in the day about jays creating "rakes" out of paper strips to pull in food that had fallen just outside the bars of their cages but which was beyond the reach of their beaks.

Homo saps - one of a number of tool-making animals, it seems.

[shenmue]

26. The Swedish judges give him a 5.6

[NoOneMan]

27. We think the bird is sledding because that is how us humans see the world

For all we know, the crow may simply be trying to crush and kill the lid while training for the imminent Human vs Bird world war.

[Jefferson23]

30. Ingenious little fella. He has the gift to fly, yet that was not enough, he figured out how to slide