Clever New Caledonian crows can use three tools

[Judi Lynn]

Page last updated at 23:13 GMT, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 00:13 UK
Clever New Caledonian crows can use three tools
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

New Caledonian crows have given scientists yet another display of their tool-using prowess.

Scientists from New Zealand's University of Auckland have found that the birds are able to use three tools in succession to reach some food.

The crows, which use tools in the wild, have also shown other problem-solving behaviour, but this find suggests they are more innovative than was thought.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The team headed to the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, the home of Corvus moneduloides.

They are the only birds known to craft and use tools in the wild.

The discovery that they whittle branches into hooks and tear leaves into barbed probes to extract food from hard-to-reach nooks astounded scientists, who had previously thought that ability to fashion tools was unique to primates.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8631486.stm

Yay, CROWS! :bounce:

[villager]

1. Gotta love the tricksters!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EKrTreEpzbM/SHdNSnc79_I/AAAAAAAAA-c/brw4HNTShL4/s400/fox+and+crow+comp.jpg

[3waygeek]

2. That's two more than

the Senate Republicans use.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Wait just a minute!

What about ...

1) Fearmongering,

2) Outright lies, and

3) Secret Holds?

[Warpy]

4. Songbirds in Britain have also been found to solve problems to get food

using tools to do so.

It seem birdbrains are better than Republican brains.

[formercia]

5. I feed a flock of Crows daily

They let me get very close. I find them fascinating.

[emilyg]

8. So do I.

[FSogol]

6. Crows: Also smarter than The Tea Party.

;-)

[OrderedChaos]

7. Crow and Pticher

Aesop's Fables had the story of the Crow and the Pitcher. The crow kept dropping pebbles into the pitcher with water at the bottom of it, so he could eventually get a drink. Maybe, this is an extension of that tale?