Crow-Cam Reveals Tool Use

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal, Science & Tech on October 4, 2007 at 10:39 pm


crows-tools_big

A research team led by Christian Rutz of the University of Oxford mounted tiny cameras on the tails of crows to study their behavior in the wild. The study found that crows use tools (sticks, leaves, blades of grass) more extensively than previously thought. Crows were even observed carrying their favorite tool from place to place! Of course, now crows are using cameras to help researchers, too, which is strange enough in itself. Link

Update 10/4/07 by Alex: Here’s the video: Link – Thanks Marilyn Terrell!


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11 comments to "Crow-Cam Reveals Tool Use"

  1. Adam Stanhope
    October 4th, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    Neat!

  2. ted
    October 5th, 2007 at 7:36 am

    What's the arrow for? Are they carrying stuff in their buttcheeks?
    Do crows have buttcheeks?

  3. Miss Cellania
    October 5th, 2007 at 7:40 am

    The arrow is pointing to the camera!

  4. L.B. Jeffries
    October 5th, 2007 at 9:19 am

    Does this mean that animals using tools is no longer a sign of sentience or that I'm descended from crows?

  5. Will M.
    October 5th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    David Attenborough did a bit on New Caledonian crows and tool use for The Life of Birds (1998) where he discussed their tool use:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwVhrrDvwPM

    He also did a bit on crows in Japan using pavement to crack nuts:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0

  6. Alex
    October 5th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    It's a "special" advertising for crows, as recently covered in Boing Boing.

  7. grcooper
    October 5th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    I honestly thought this was photoshoped in, but then I was looking through my local newspaper today and saw the exact same picture. Pretty funny... I don't think the people at the paper saw this though. I got a good laugh out of it though!

  8. Vonskippy
    October 5th, 2007 at 5:50 pm

    Great, now I have to worry about crow's borrowing my tools instead of just my neighbor Boris (and no his wifes name is not Natasha).

  9. ted
    October 5th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

    Well, crows using cameras, even in their butt-cheeks would qualify as tool use, I guess.

  10. peach
    October 6th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

    don't the cams get pooped on? or are they filming the pooping?

  11. Jezebel
    October 13th, 2007 at 11:27 pm

    Studies also confirmed crows were among the species that could also manufacture and then use tools. A crow fashioned a hook out of a paperclip and used it to retrieve food.

    That puts them up there with humans and chimps as one of the very few species that can actually make tools.


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