This story from New Scientist describes the latest news about the intelligence of birds in the crow family, in this case rooks. Pairs of birds were able to figure out the cooperative behavior needed to get food. The setup involved a tray of food that was visible but inaccessible to the birds; a string ran behind the tray with a loose end extending on either side of the tray. If a bird pulled on one loose end, he simply pulled the string out from behind the tray; if he got a buddy to simultaneously pull on the other end, however, they could jointly pull the tray out and get the food.
They figured it out without too much training when another bird was around, but they didn’t seem to get the hang of waiting for a partner to help. When another bird was on the way but delayed, a lone bird would generally pull on the string by itself and lose the chance to get the food. This differs from chimp behavior; chimpanzees can both solve problems like this and also understand that they need to wait for a partner to help them. It’s still too early to say why chimps get that aspect of it and the rooks don’t seem to. It may be linked to the fact that interactions between mature crows are fairly limited, so their social instincts are not as finely honed as those of animals that interact more. At any rate, it’s cool, as always, to see smart birds learning the ropes. The New Scientist article includes a video.
