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My friend Ramiro, Zanchetta, TV, Adam, and all those who are lucky enough to feel each Good Friday ...

Can U Wax Over A Hemroid

Raise Ravens and become geniuses

recent years have given the Ravens another meaning to the term "knucklehead" as we have shown that you can have bird brains yet surprise us with their skills.

The corvids groups they belong to the nutcrackers, magpies, jays and ravens, among others, and are famous for their innovative behaviors, their big brains, use your and general tools for their intelligence (see other examples here and here ). New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides ), in particular, have demonstrated amazing abilities in the use of tools. These skills are extraordinary not only in the animal world (non-human), but even compared with primates, the kings of the use of tools.

Cuervo. Image taken from here .

For example, in some experiments the crows not only use pieces of wire to extract juicy worms hidden in a tube if you bend one end of the wire easier to extract. Some authors have even suggested that his ability to use tools shows that these dark birds are capable of inductive reasoning. That is, can establish causal relationships between events and thus be able to solve problems that require, for example, the implementation of actions in sequence. Also, in the ornithological world is much talk about its considerably larger brains.

Cuervo using tools. Image Rosen Jonathon.

In other species such as primates and ungulates, has been that brain size is related to group size and the presence of complex cognitive skills, such as the ability to classify in a hierarchy. According to the social brain hypothesis the pressures facing social animals could have led to the development of flexible and intelligent minds. However, in the world of birds not found a clear relationship between brain size and sociality. Others as Richard W Byrne and Andrew Whiten have suggested that the quality and type of relationships can predict the "intelligence" that the best way to group size. Despite all the details about their skills, until recently was not known in detail the social structure of the crows of New Caledonia. To remedy this Holzhaider Jenny University of Auckland in New Zealand was given the task of studying for 4 years as part of his doctoral thesis - the social life of a group of crows on the island of Maré in New Caledonia. Some of the results of his thesis was published a few weeks ago in the online version of the journal Animal Behaviour . For his dissertation, Jenny and other partners put food tables with vertical holes in which were pieces of flesh that could only be extracted with a tool, for example, a stick of appropriate length and width. About these tables placed Pandanus trees for the crows could get around their "tools."

Since crows identified individually with colored bandages on their legs Jenny and her team were able to know who is associated with whom in the feeding sites. Also, put radio transmitters on some of them to know its position outside of the food tables.

Surprisingly, the results showed that New Caledonian crows are highly social. In fact, these crows seem to prefer small family units: the couple and their young. In addition, the offspring remain closely associated with their parents during the first year of life and even longer, during which parents can even provide food for young black and attached. These crows birds seem to be very relaxed, do not seem to defend their territories and adults tolerate juveniles belonging to other families. During the study of Jenny observers rarely witnessed aggressive interactions. This could be due to the existence of social hierarchies that somehow the conflict can be cushioned. The fact that parental care is so long distinguished the crows of New Caledonia in other corvids. The advantage of the protracted relief and protection of parents is that it allows the young to learn techniques for extraction of food, particularly in areas where food is not readily accessible. line with the hypothesis technical intelligence, given by Richard W Byrne and Andrew Whiten , challenges which could impose the removal of food could explain the cognitive skills developed and the degree of encephalization in this species of tropical crows. Interestingly, this hypothesis was originally proposed to explain the difference between brain size among hominids and other primates. The authors of it's suggested at the time as a supplement to the social brain hypothesis, not as a substitute. Consequently, the authors proposed that competition social and technological (tool use) acted together to promote the evolution of increased brain size and, therefore, the degree of intelligence. According to Jenny and her team, two aspects of social life of New Caledonian crows are consistent with the hypothesis mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. First, as social relations are restricted to immediate family. Second, parents facilitate the acquisition of skills in their young through the continuous interaction over a long period of time. latter promotes vertical transmission (from father to son, or from one generation to another) of skills in the use of tools. Vertical transmission is considered crucial for the reliable transmission of technological innovations. On the other hand, a strong tolerance among individuals has also been proposed as a key factor in the evolution of technology in hominids. The close tolerance between individuals and allow new generations to observe in detail the behavior of others, particularly when it comes to observing the use and / or development tools. As mentioned previously, tolerance a particular social was also observed in the study crows Jenny. In another wording of ideas, the fact that New Caledonian crows establish close social relationships and long term is consistent with the idea that, from the cognitive point of view, the quality of relationships birds (or at least some) could be a more important factor than the number of relationships in the evolution of avian intelligence.

In summary, in New Caledonian crows small social networks, and extended parental care the existence of quality social relationships are social factors that might be associated with impressive skills in the use of tools and the development of cognitive skills. In the world of the crows of New Caledonia, where young ravens become geniuses.

"Cuervo sophisticated: I can use your orbital sander friend? "

20-1 Sydney Morning Herald -1996.

Reference article:


Holzhaider, J., Sibley, M., Taylor, A., Singh, P., Gray, R., & Hunt, G. (2010). The social structure of New Caledonian crows Animal Behaviour DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.015