In one of our earlier posts we were intrigued by a news story about the ability of crows to recognize the faces of researchers who were observing them. (It had to do with the researchers wearing Dick Cheney masks as they were running tests on them.)
Recently we came across an article from Cambridge University that has found that crows also have the ability to build and use tools for food collection. We are not kidding, it seems the crows, when met with a challenge to retrieve food from difficult to reach containers, have been stripping the leaves off of twigs to make them usable to get food. Not only do they build tools they make up to three different types of tools to use in retrieving food from one cache. (They make and use straight twigs, hooked twigs, and thorns in the tool making process.) Crows in Japan have recently been seen placing walnuts on a roadway when lights are red, and then after the cars have driven over them waiting for the light to change again to red and retrieving the walnuts for a quick snack. This behaviour may not be new. There is an Aesop's fable of a crow dropping rocks into a pitcher to raise the water level so it could drink. And of course the story of the death of Greek philosopher Aeschylus, who was killed by a turtle dropped by an eagle. Yes, we know an eagle is not a crow, but we thought we would mention in anyway. (Apparently Aeschylus was bald and the eagle thought his head was a rock.) So we at the crazy are happily looking forward to the day when the crows band together, build some sort of weapon, and kill Dick Cheney. Just a thought. Ciao for now.
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