Skip to content
Support Us

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Crow via Shutterstock

Crows are just as clever as some seven year olds - science

Experts in New Zealand say the crow can rival the intelligence of young children.

NEW RESEARCH HAS revealed that crows can understand water displacement.

According to researchers in New Zealand, the birds have a causal understanding – at the level of five to seven year olds – of how to displace water to receive a reward.

Understanding causal relationships between actions is a key feature of human cognition. To try and understand the extent to which animals are capable of something similar, scientists from the University of Auckland used the Aesop’s fable riddle.

In that story, subjects drop stones into water to raise the level and obtain a once out-of-reach reward. In the project, New Caledonian crows- who are already known for their intelligence and innovation – were tested using this method.

We already know that New Caledonian crows make tools, such as prodding sticks and hooks, the only non-primate species able to do so.

image

Credit: Sarah Jelbert; CC-BY

Publishing her results in the PLOS ONE journal, lead researcher Sarah Jelbert said her project highlights both the “strengths and limits of the crows’ understanding”.

“In particular, the crows all failed a task which violated normal causal rules, but they could pass the other tasks, which suggests they were using some level of causal understanding when they were successful.”

During six experiments, six wild crows were tested after a short training period.

The authors of the study noted “rapid learning” over the course of the tasks – although not every bird finished each job.

The researchers explained that the tasks did not test insightful problem solving, but were directed at the birds’ understanding of volume displacement.

The crows completed four of six water displacement tasks, including:

  • Preferentially dropping stones into a water-filled tube instead of a sand-filled tube;
  • Dropping sinking objects rather than floating objects;
  • Using solid objects rather than hollow objects;
  • And dropping objects into a tube with a high water level rather than a low one.

However, they failed two more challenging tasks – one that required understanding of the width of the tube, and one that required understanding of counter-intuitive cues for a U-shaped displacement task.

Jelbert concluded that crows may possess a sophisticated – but incomplete – understanding of the causal properties of volume displacement, rivalling that of 5-7 year old children.

An ageing population is going to need a population of robots, engineers say

Explainer: How to sneeze properly

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
36 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jason Walsh
    Favourite Jason Walsh
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 10:22 PM

    It should have an r in it for the correct Irish pronunciation? Chicargo

    111
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Susan Cody
    Favourite Susan Cody
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:11 PM

    @Jason Walsh: No idea why but people love to put the R in there! I live in Michigan and many Irish people pronounce it Mitchigan! And Mary-Land (pron MARA-lund) , so many others. Then Irish people complain how Americans pronounce Ireland, Galway etc!

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Desmond
    Favourite Dave Desmond
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:17 AM

    @Susan Cody: I’ve never known any Irish person to pronounce these places in the way that you say.

    73
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Oh Mammy
    Favourite Oh Mammy
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:30 AM

    @Dave Desmond: inhave never known an Irish person that didn’t have the r in there

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karen Marten
    Favourite Karen Marten
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 1:40 AM

    @Jason Walsh: never heard any one say with an r .

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick Hyland
    Favourite Mick Hyland
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 2:32 PM

    @Dave Desmond: I’m one

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Hannahs
    Favourite William Hannahs
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 2:52 PM

    @Jason Walsh: when my new roommate was writing home about me and asked, “how many ‘r’s are there in Chicago?” I knew I was a long way from home.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ronan Mc
    Favourite Ronan Mc
    Report
    Aug 16th 2024, 2:40 PM

    Home of Richard Kimble too

    76
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute reg morrisey
    Favourite reg morrisey
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 9:06 AM

    @Ronan Mc:
    “I didn’t kill my wife”
    ” I don’t care”
    Great movie.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:01 PM

    Can I get there without my passport?

    67
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alex
    Favourite Alex
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 1:00 AM

    @Glen: Yes, easy cross from Canada. This year alone 30.000 illegals came from Canada to reach NYC, the highest ever number.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karen Marten
    Favourite Karen Marten
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 1:35 AM

    @Alex: well every so called war victim can get in here with no pass portbit I can’t see how you’d get through Canadian security into USA with no passport

    31
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Hannahs
    Favourite William Hannahs
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 3:19 PM

    @Glen: yes. Yes you can. Get in your car and crank the heater until you get a good sweat on while listening to a cubs game on WBBM over radio.garden, close your eyes and repeat the mantra, “five eight eight two three hundred, Empire” and you’re there. Holy cow!

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Sullivan
    Favourite Mary Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:59 AM

    Some of the best of the late, great John Hughes 1980s movies are partially or wholly based in Chicago. The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and who can forget the concluding scene of his magnum opus Planes, Trains and Automobiles. They don’t make movies like those anymore.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute H Woo
    Favourite H Woo
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:23 PM

    Defund the worthless NGOs

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:05 PM

    I do like my country, I am just ashamed of the clowns running it

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Quinny
    Favourite Quinny
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 10:08 PM

    1 out of 10 , is as much as i know , about that place across the water ,that they call Chicago.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Susan Cody
    Favourite Susan Cody
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:12 PM

    @Quinny: I got a 9/10, I live in a neighbouring State. Normally I max out of these quizzes with a 6/10!

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karen Marten
    Favourite Karen Marten
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 1:44 AM

    @Quinny: not even about the pizzas EVERY ONE knows about that sure was the best place to eat in the 90s Chicago pizza pie factory in Stephens green

    18
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute honey badger
    Favourite honey badger
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 7:48 AM
    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ulick
    Favourite Ulick
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:20 AM

    I got 7 out of 10. Chicago was a great city, now ruined by years of progressive politicians and police hating DAs.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 10:35 PM

    Grant Mitchell and Simon Harris were born there

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Be Lucky
    Favourite Be Lucky
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:26 PM

    It’s was a lovely gothic city much destroyed in name of progress,

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Glen
    Favourite Glen
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 10:31 PM

    No

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Freda Peeple
    Favourite Freda Peeple
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 10:25 PM

    It’s also a good Graham Nash tune

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Phillip Smyth
    Favourite Phillip Smyth
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:28 PM

    Gangsters Irish cops valentine days massacre frank Sinatra

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Dunne
    Favourite Brian Dunne
    Report
    Aug 18th 2024, 11:53 PM

    @Phillip Smyth: wasn’t sinatra from new jersey?

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael o Dwyer
    Favourite Michael o Dwyer
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 7:46 AM

    @Brian Dunne: think it’s a song

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Phillip Smyth
    Favourite Phillip Smyth
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:06 AM

    Sang Chicago.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Padraig O'Brien
    Favourite Padraig O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:00 PM

    Is this another article about Michael Shine?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 10:57 AM

    8/10. I knows the windy apple.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerard Hayden
    Favourite Gerard Hayden
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 2:19 PM

    VI Warshawski

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute K H
    Favourite K H
    Report
    Aug 19th 2024, 12:56 PM

    Great city to experience Blues Music

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds