A new study shows crows have the ability to plan three behaviours ahead towards achieving a goal in a way that may be
similar to the way humans plan future moves in chess.
The team of researchers from the University of Auckland, the University of Cambridge and the Max Planck Institute for
the Science of Human History, were able to produce the first conclusive evidence that birds have the ability to plan
while using tools by working with New Caledonian crows. This species is famed for its tool-making and problem solving
abilities.
They set up problems to determine if the crows were solving the task on a moment-to-moment basis or were truly planning
out a sequence of behaviours before they took on the task.
For example, in one problem crows had to use a short stick to push a stone from a tube, and then drop this stone onto a
platform to release a piece of meat. They had to do this while ignoring a long stick in a tube, as the long stick did
not work in the platform. To make the problem even harder, and ensure the crows were truly planning, only one stage of
the problem could be viewed at a time. This meant the crows had to remember where the stone, long stick and meat were
and use this information to plan out the correct sequence for a solution.
Watch video of the crows solving the task here: https://youtu.be/kK_FEXb3awo
“Because each part of the problem was out of sight of the others, our study clearly shows the birds were capable of
preplanning. They were imagining the required steps in advance rather than simply acting on a moment-to-moment basis,”
says University of Auckland PhD candidate Romana Gruber.
Dr Alex Taylor, also from the University of Auckland, says the study contributes significantly to our knowledge of how
widespread planning with tools is across the animal kingdom.
“The ability of humans to plan ahead while using tools is a key reason why we currently have the civilisation we live in
today. To see a bird species also possesses this combination of abilities is remarkable.”
The study is published in Current Biology and available at http://cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30010-7
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