Crows are the most intelligence birds. Special attention should be paid to the New Caledonian crows. His favorite food is the beetle larvae, whom he extracts from the cracks with amazing skill and ingenuity. For these purposes crows use thin pointed or hooked twigs. Pushing them into the cracks, the birds irritate the larvae, as a result of which they grasp the mandibles for a twig – after that the crow only needs to pull out the “fishing rod with the hook”.
It is noteworthy that birds not only use improvised means, but they can carry with them the most convenient of them. The ability to use tools not congenital, but transmitted in the process of learning from older birds young.
This rightfully makes it possible to declare the presence of new Caledonian raven rudiments of a real culture! In captivity, these birds showed even more outstanding results: having received from the experimenter too short a twig that could not be extracted prey, the crows used it to pull a longer and convenient stick out of the box. Such multi-path planning of their actions is known only in primates.
However, do not think that a high level of intelligence is inherent only in this species. Other crows, especially when kept in captivity, show no worse results, for example, are able to recognize themselves in the mirror. In addition, manual ordinary crows show themselves as talented imitators. They are able to repeat various sounds, including words.
