Intelligent Design

[Ray Jones]

... of tools made by animals, that is. ;~~~

 

 

Yesterday I saw a documentation about animals and their ability to use tools. Aside from those classical chimp /w stick or otter /w stone things I saw something impressive.

 

At Oxford University they have crows who are able to actually make tools instead of just using some thing lying around.

 

That guy took like a small bucket (like a cap of a deo spray) filled it with tasty crow snacks closed it with a lid and then put it into a hole in the table (like that tube in a toilet paper roll, but longer), so that a crow cannot reach it on their own. He also placed a small wire next to that hole.

 

So what the crow know did was like she took that wire and bended it so she had a hook and just fished that bucket out of the hole.

 

That crow came from New Zealand, so they went there to see what's going on with the crows in New Zealand.

 

What I saw then was really astounding - the crows cut small stripes out of palm leafs (those with small hooks/thorns on the side) to do tricks similar to the bucket thing. They use those to get all kinds of maggots and worms out of tree stumps and so on. And to top even that, they have an enhanced version of that thing which is longer and made in four steps with 3 different widths so it is more stable than the normal thing but longer and still small enough to dig in tight deep holes:

 

normal leaf-with-hooks tool:

 

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enhanced version, with big handle, long range, stable:

 

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,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=;

 

 

I mean and they don't even got hands. Absolute cool. ^^

[El Sitherino]

Man, I thought I was going to bash some Jackson Pollock lovers.

 

 

That crow hook sounds pretty awesome. I've had a chipmunk throw an acorn at me, for some of my banana nut muffin, once.

[Achilles]

Yay! Another intelligent species to throw on the pile.

 

Thanks for the info, Ray.

[mimartin]

As someone that use to torment squirrels as a child with cookies I have to admit animals are a lot smarter than we give the credit for. Watching a squirrel retrieve a cookie on a string no matter the obstacles I place before it was always very entertaining. I never knew I was performing science…Now where is my grant money.

 

Very cool Ray Jones, thanks.

[1jrJedismom]

There is also Coco the Gorilla. She speaks American Sign Language and taught it to other Gorillas in her group. But, Yes, we dont give animals enough credit. We sould be paying more attention. We could learn a thing or two. I have seen some pretty good use of tools by animals on AFV. Sorry, I cant remember details right now, but sometimes peope do catch it on camera.

[RobQel-Droma]

Animals constantly amaze me, I have to say. Sometimes I swear they have more ingenuity than humans at times...

[Darth InSidious]

I thought it was generally accepted that most species have some kind of intelligence?

[Arcesious]

I was flipping channels yesterday and I found an interesting show called Nova. this was quite interesting: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius/

[PoiuyWired]

Also all those parrots are really really smart, able to hold up reasonable conversations, and bargain and such. Not to mention dolphins.

 

Oh, and anyone who is close enough to their dogs/cats would tell you about smart behavior of various degrees.

 

I could swear my cat is trying to build a portal gun on top of the fridge.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

As someone that use to torment squirrels as a child with cookies I have to admit animals are a lot smarter than we give the credit for. Watching a squirrel retrieve a cookie on a string no matter the obstacles I place before it was always very entertaining.

Having lived in Houston, where squirrels are abundant, I wholeheartedly agree. They're clever little creatures. Leaving out food for birds in a way that made it inaccessible to squirrels was just about impossible.