THE CROWS HAVE IT

Here at Doc40 we have a special affinity with crows. Dr. Crow is our logo, and crows rule the wildlife on the street where we live. I am well aware that they are expert tool-users, and have often noticed the local crow crew giving me a look that indicated the food chain might well be differently linked if the black birds only had opposable thumbs. Now Aeswiren sends us this report that confirms many of our suspicions and even a few of our paranoias.

"In the past, people thought birds were stupid," laments the aptly named scientist Christopher Bird. But in fact, some of our feathered friends are far cleverer than we might think. And one group in particular - the corvids - has astonished scientists with extraordinary feats of memory, an ability to employ complex social reasoning and, perhaps most strikingly, a remarkable aptitude for crafting and using tools.
Mr. Bird, who is based at the department of zoology at Cambridge University, says: "I would rate corvids as being as intelligent as primates in many ways."
The corvids - a group that includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays and magpies - contain some of the most social species of birds.” (Click here for more and some fairly amazing videos)

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