4 ms·
Interesting. I'm curious to know whether the rooks improved in their abilities to use and craft "tools" as they encountered subsequent experiments, or whether t
by Adlai 17y ago
Interesting. I'm curious to know whether the rooks improved in their abilities to use and craft "tools" as they encountered subsequent experiments, or whether their performance remained roughly constant.
The rook seems very hesitant in the first experiments shown, but in the last two videos, it seemed much more confident. One possible reason for the lack of hesitation in the "metatool" experiment is that the rook seemed to watch closely as the scientist set up the trapdoors, and might have been already formulating a plan ahead of time.
I think that if that's the case, then the rook has a pretty high level of sophistication -- more than if it was just using trial-and-error to figure out the right combination of stones.
- jnorthrop 17y agoI also wonder whether they can work in teams. For that matter I wonder if chimpanzees and crows (the other "tool users" mentioned in the article) work in teams. Interesting stuff.
- Adlai 17y agoChimps are very social animals. Ironically, one of their great cooperative activities is similar to that of humans: namely, killing eachother. From what I've learned about evolution, and "selfish gene" theory, it seems as though cooperation pervades social animal societies. According to this page [1], and the Wikipedia article on rooks, they seems to flock together. I wouldn't be surprised if further study reveals some cooperative behaviour. [1] http://www.first-nature.com/birds/corvus_frugilegus.htm http://www.first-nature.com/birds/corvus_frugilegus.htm