Crows And Their Cognitive Ability
A good way to approach this issue is to quote Lewis Carroll: “ How is a raven like a desk? “Or rather, how is a raven like a monkey? Corvids, like primates, have a great cognitive capacity for memory tasks, despite being species so different from each other. If you are curious about the intelligence of these enigmatic birds, do not hesitate to read on.
The cognitive ability of corvids
Crows, magpies, jackdaws, crows, and long-tailed crows belong to the corvid family. This group is well known for their great intelligence and abilities. There are many studies where their cognitive abilities are put to the test and it has been shown that corvids stand out for:
- The use of analogical reasoning. Crows relate events and experiences that are not similar to each other from other previous experiences that do share similarities.
- Have episodic memory. These animals can have very clear memories of specific situations they have experienced.
- Use tools.
- Present complex social interactions. Corvids are able to decipher the social dynamics of other groups of crows, understanding the relationships between members of their own group and others from outside. In a community of crows, relationships are established by the social ranks of each member and they emit characteristic calls that indicate dominance or submission.
- They are aware of themselves and the mental state of their conspecifics. Crows are able to recognize themselves in a mirror, they are aware of what they are like, and they can also remember others of their kind.
Crows have working memory
The high cognitive level of primates is due to working memory, short-term storage and manipulation of information. Other mental abilities such as planning or cognitive flexibility depend directly on working memory.
The results of numerous studies with corvids show that, throughout their evolutionary history, they have developed a great capacity for working memory, equivalent to that of primates. An example of this type of work is the ethological experiment of the psychologist Balakhonov and his team, which we explain below.
Crows and primates
Balakhonov trained two black crow ( Corvus corone ) for ten months to overcome an experiment previously carried out on two species of macaque. The experiment consisted of presenting a series of visual stimuli on a screen and recording the tracking of the head and eyes before the stimulus, previously training the birds to keep their heads centered.
The visual stimuli were colored squares that remained on the screen (always the same), disappeared for a few seconds and reappeared with some modification. Faced with a change in forms, the animal pecked at the screen.
They discovered that the maximum number of elements that the corvid could work with on the screen was four, a result very similar to that obtained with primates.
Crows can solve complex problems
The cognitive ability of crows helps them solve everyday problems. For example, the creation of tools from the memory of previous instruments that they created themselves for a similar situation or even those made by another colleague.
In this way they can solve experiments that require several steps in a specific order, since they have the ability to store this information and use it sequentially.
Repeating experiments on animals as different as birds and mammals is possible because they share some similarities such as great cognitive ability, a very precise visual system or color resolution in this case.
These works show that despite having different evolutionary lines, different species can share characteristics due to a convergent evolution.
Problem solving in the natural world can mean the difference between life and death, so it is not surprising that many living things display such extraordinary capabilities.
