Crows, Too, Plan for the Future and Make Decisions

[Fam Times reporter Kyung-han Lee] Animals use intelligence to adapt to their environment and make important decisions.

Intelligence helps animals make decisions and adapt to their environment. Humans excel at decision-making, adaptation, and planning, possessing intelligence in these areas that is unmatched anywhere else on Earth.

Over the past few years, however, scientists have discovered this kind of intelligence in nonhuman primates and other animals. One animal that challenges human intelligence is the crow.

Storing leftover food is a common trait among crows. Crows must finish eating an animal carcass before it decomposes. They therefore decide when and where to store the remaining food.

A study published in the journal Science shed light on the connection between birds and instinctive behavior. Researchers gave a group of crows a series of tasks and observed them; among them, some species took less than 17 hours to learn to use a new tool to obtain food.

The crows even made tools from materials they had never seen before.

The study shows that animals also have the ability to plan for the future. The researchers said the findings challenge the idea that this ability is unique to humans.

Neurophysiological evidence may substantiate the theory of general intelligence in animals. After assigning tasks to crows and observing them, the researchers said further study is also needed into the flexibility and rapid development that produce specific animal behaviors.

They explained that such research could reveal how crows' ability to plan for the future is related to intelligence.

Reporter Kyung-han Lee, fam1@pcss.co.kr