Why Crows Are as Smart as 7 Year Old Humans

[Music] in the animal kingdom intelligence has evolved in many different ways in many different creatures we often think of our fellow primates at the top of the intelligence list with their ability to use tools like sticks and rocks to access food and with their ability to recognize themselves in the mirror orcas too are among the most intelligent with their unique language skills and orchestrated hunting techniques and anyone with a dog is constantly surprised at complex feats of social intelligence and emotional sensitivity intelligence seems to thrive in animals like this mammals often carnivorous ones that live in tight social groups but if we survey the world of animals one of the smartest is one that is perhaps unexpected an animal that isn't a mammal at all but a bird crows or more generally corvids corvids are mischievous playful and extremely intelligent they use tools to forage and to solve complex problems they even drop nuts on a road for cars to crack and then pick them up with the safety of pedestrian lights they can also recognize faces and can hold a grudge against someone who is rude to them for several years they can mimic sounds that they hear and scientists have found that their problem solving skills rival that of a seven-year-old human how is it that crows are so profoundly intelligent and how is it that we even measure their intelligence in the first place is bird intelligence wired in the same way as mammal intelligence or is it something different altogether the corvid family is also known as the crow family and includes crows jays ravens rooks and magpies the level of intelligence varies between the species but scientists have found that the new caledonian crow is the most intelligent there to corvids what we are to the rest of the primates in 2014 the crows were presented with various tubes filled with water with a treat floating on top which they couldn't quite reach in one trial when presented with a treat inside a tube of water and a treat sitting on top of sand the crows knew to drop rocks into the water-filled tube to raise the water level to reach the treat and ignored the tube with sand in the next trial when presented with a single tube of water and objects with various densities the crows knew to select the sinking objects rather than the floating ones to reach the treat when presented with two tubes of differing water levels the crows knew to drop objects in the tube with the higher water level to reach the treat faster these trials demonstrated the crow's abilities in both problem solving and tool use and the authors believe that their skill level at deciphering and completing these tasks is similar to five to seven year old children however in two more challenging tasks the crows didn't perform as well one required understanding the difference in a wide tube versus a narrow tube and another was a counter-intuitive task where the tube with the reward was connected to another tube via a hidden u-bend the crows didn't fully grasp these setups but in comparison during tests with human children only kids around eight years old were able to consistently solve such tests and in addition to using tools new caledonian crows can build tools and not just simple ones but ones with multiple parts when given objects that were too short to retrieve food from a puzzle box the crows combined elements by inserting one stick into the hollowed opening of another to make a tool long enough to reach the food one crow even made three and four part tools compound tool construction like this has only been observed outside humans in a few captive great apes it's usually only associated with human intelligence and in addition to this we now think crows might be better than we ever could have imagined at making plans for the future the ability to take actions now that will give a benefit later is not something that most animals are good at delayed gratification and planning are high order skills human children can't do this and neither can many of the adults that i know it requires our memory of the past and foresight for future events can crows of all animals really possess this ability in a study published in 2020 new caledonian crows were first shown one of three puzzle boxes that they already knew how to open each requiring a specific tool they were then removed from the test area for five minutes before being presented with five different objects one tool for each of the boxes and two distraction objects after selecting an object and waiting 10 minutes they were allowed back into the test area the researchers discovered that not only did the birds choose the correct tool that would open the corresponding puzzle box but they would remember to bring the tool with them into the test area in another study researchers presented the birds with a locked box with a treat in a similar manner but this time the birds were then presented with an assortment of items including the correct tool a few distractor tools and an immediate food reward but one that was less appealing than the one in the locked box and most of the time the birds took the risk and delayed their gratification kept the correct tool and later opened the box with the better treat this might seem easy to us but it isn't only once human children reach 5 years old does this ability arise and even then it doesn't in all of them for some it takes a few more years these mental skills certainly set crows apart from other animals with their actions and abilities more in line with the smartest of the primates how does this bird give the most intelligent primates a run for their money why does a bird need to be this smart even though crows may have a similar intelligence to many primates bird brains and primate brains are not at all the same birds and mammals split on the evolutionary tree 320 million years ago and since then their brains have become quite distinct from one another making scientists question exactly why corvids are so smart in vertebrates the pallium is the gray and white matter that covers the brain before the evolutionary split both birds and mammals evolved a large pallium but after their lineages split the mammalian pallium evolved into a layered structure known as the cerebral cortex this is the most complex structure of the mammalian brain each layer contains nerve fibers running horizontally and vertically that process and transmit information here is where many important functions take place including learning memory sensory perception and conceptual thinking birds don't have a cerebral cortex but a study published in 2020 found that the fibers in circuitry in the bird pallium are organized very similarly to a mammalian neocortex with fibers running both horizontally and vertically the authors believe this explains where bird intelligence comes from another reason why birds were initially thought to be incapable of this level of intelligence was due to the small size of their brains but it's not the absolute size of an animal's brain that matters but the brain to body ratio crows tend to have big brains compared to their body size in mammals the bigger brained individuals are humans and dolphins in birds it's parrots and crows however as scientists understanding of the brain grew they discovered it wasn't just size that mattered or even brain size relative to body size a big proponent of an animal's intelligence is the density of neurons this is because having tightly packed neurons leads to better communication between them and it turns out that certain bird species have very densely packed neurons in a 2016 study researchers measured the number of neurons in various bird and primate species they found that some birds like corvids have twice as many neurons as primates with similar sized brains with numbers closer to that of larger primates while these findings tell us how crows are so smart the question remains as to why plenty of bird species thrive with fewer neurons and weaker mental abilities so why did crows evolve this way one theory is that it has to do with the way they are raised unlike other species corvids spend more time with their parents new caledonian crows are fed by their parents for up to two years during this time they have ample access to role models who are making and using tools and have the opportunity to use these tools themselves this extended parenting time allows skills to be transmitted vertically meaning from parent to offspring the family groups of many species of crow can be very tight with young crows even helping to defend their parents new nest of babies however beyond tight family groups adults of many species of corvids don't lead particularly social lives new caledonian crows mate for life but otherwise don't really interact with other adults other species of corvid will often forage and roost in large groups or work together to mob a predator but there isn't a social hierarchy or complex social bonds in these settings this seems to go against one leading theory of intelligence called the social intelligence hypothesis chimpanzees for example live in large and complex social groups where they have to interact with others outside their immediate family and keep tabs on many relationships it's a constant game of politics dogs wolves and even orcas have to deal with a great amount of social complexity and this social intelligence needs a lot of brain power if adults of many of the smartest corvids don't live in complex social groups why would a similar intelligence have evolved adult corvids may rarely live in wide social groups but often juveniles do before pairing up with a mating partner during their teenage years some species of corvids live in larger flocks aptly called juvenile gangs and these gangs work exactly like they sound a bunch of teenagers hang out and bully each other and fight in these angsty years corvids like ravens for example form the many relationships that they have to keep tabs on and intriguingly corvids may need social intelligence to interact with other species outside of yellowstone national park certain ravens have been seen interacting with wolves especially wolf pups the animals have been seen playing tug of war and the ravens tease and entice the puppies to jump and grab sticks sometimes the ravens will even pull the wolves tails by all accounts it looks like the animals are playing some scientists think that individual ravens may even develop special bonds with individual wolves within a pack this relationship building may help the ravens more readily scavenge the wolves kills this propensity to interact with other species has some groups wondering how we may be able to cooperate with corvids one idea is to train crows and other corvids to pick up cigarette butts or garbage a few different companies are developing devices that will autonomously train the birds giving them a treat once they place the trash into the device a theme park in france has already been undertaking a similar operation they trained six rooks to pick up trash four days a week under the supervision of the park's falconer while it may seem like we're taking advantage of these birds and their intelligence by having them do something we should already be doing ourselves those involved seem to have good intentions it helps the environment teaches humans to cooperate with another species and teaches the public about these intelligent creatures by studying other intelligent species and what made them that way scientists have gained a better understanding of the brain and its development and for all we know we could be overlooking other small brained species that could harbor a higher intelligence other animals that can help us unlock the many secrets of the brain i love talking about animal intelligence on this channel because i love the way the brain works i love its mysteries and its unbelievable power and because of this i love the feeling of learning of grasping new concepts of those moments of sudden understanding washing over you when physics and math and chemistry and biology start to click together feeling like one beautiful interconnected machine that explains our universe and i'd like to think that crows feel this too when they get their treat out of the tube and to engage myself in stem learning i use brilliant brilliant is an amazing tool for learning stem interactively the quizzes puzzles and downright delightful animations make the learning engaging where it almost feels like a game and if you get stuck on a particular question brilliant doesn't penalize you or impede your progress instead they give you an in-depth explanation to guide you to the right answer so you can learn from your mistakes it's easy to learn in this low pressure environment and most importantly it's easy to learn by doing there are so many courses to dive into from neural networks to algorithms to logic and probability or my new favorite scientific thinking nature is a puzzle and in this course you get to learn about principles of physics and engineering by playing with mechanics energy and light in a bunch of interactive puzzles to get started for free visit brilliant.org real science or click on the link in the description and the first 200 people will get 20 off brilliant's annual premium subscription and if you're looking for something else to watch right now you can watch our previous video about the jellyfish that lives forever or watch real engineering's latest video about the way engineering solved the mystery of the concord crash

Channel: Real Science

Views: 2,940,053

Keywords:

Id: 7aWL2iEb6y4

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/APwinger]

7 year olds are dumber than fucking birds

[u/letsreticulate]

My guess has always been, in part to the the high degree of socialization.

[u/Roller_ball]

Also crows

[u/Crannynoko]

They begin explaining the answer at exactly 9 minutes in

[u/pacifismisevil]

Clickbait title. They can do 1 specific task at the level of a 7 year old. A 7 year old is far superior in most ways.

[u/Riskthecat]

My turds are as smart as 7 year olds

[u/Groundbreaking-Bar89]

When I was younger I would have said nah.. but I believe crows are smarter than some adults I have met.

[u/MisterPuffyNipples]

Anyone else really like certain voices? I found myself just paying more attention to her voice than what she was actually saying