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Research Paper On Corvids

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The corvids, a group that includes crows, ravens, jays, rooks, jackdaws, and magpies. These are considered some of the most social and intelligent species of birds on the planet. Forming alliances, fostering relationships, and recognizing individuals is all part of what gives credit to their brilliance. These birds have astonished scientists with an ability to apply complex social reasoning, incredible feats of memory, and an outstanding aptitude for crafting and using tools. Some scientists even rate corvids as being as intelligent as, and perhaps surpassing primate intellect in many ways. This is easiest to observe in the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides), which is found on the Pacific island of New Caledonia. University of …show more content…

This remarkable problem solving ability was best revealed by scientists in the case of Betty, a captive New Caledonian crow. Leader of the behavioral ecology group at Oxford University Alex Kacelnik, said: "Betty was captured as a juvenile from the field, and she must have been one-and-a-half years old when she came to us. And we didn't have any reason to suspect that she was an unusual animal." However the team discovered, during observation, that Betty was able to perform some remarkable feats that had never been seen before in any other animals. The researchers presented New Caledonian crows with a bucket filled with some food in an attempt to document how they went about selecting tools. The bucket was placed in a well, and pieces of straight and hooked wire were placed before the birds. The intent was to discover whether the crows would select the bent wire to retrieve the food within the …show more content…

They also lack the area of the mammalian brain that is thought to produce intelligent cognition- the neocortex. Birds brains contain the nidopallium, which might do the same job. During the 1960s neurologist Stanley Cobb discovered that birds use the hyperstriatum, a part of the brain, which mammals do not have as their main area of intelligence. Located at the front of a bird’s brain, Cobb discovered that the larger this part of the brain was the better birds did on tests of intelligence. As scientists continue to their research, fundamental questions about intelligence are brought to the surface. Christian Rutz, with Oxford's behavioral ecology group, says: "There are such enormous semantic issues. How do you define intelligence? How do you define what it means to understand something?" We must careful with labeling intelligence to seemingly impressive behaviors, he says. He says to understand what these birds are doing and whether this sets them apart from other species, the same experiments need to be carried out, multiple times, on many different species, to properly compare results. Dr Rutz also added: "People tend to think corvid cognition research is now incredibly advanced and we've answered most of the questions - I don't think so, I think it is at the very

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