Wild crows inhabiting the city use it to their advantage - David Attenborough - BBC wildlife

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Cites a-priori · 2009-03 · on “Dolphins blowing bubble rings, and playing with them [video]”

Individuals of many species are capable of copying the behaviour of another individuals (usually of the same species) by observation. The other primates are the most well-known mimics ("monkey see, monkey do"), but most mammals and birds do this. We like to think we're special in this respect, but we're really not. Birds, for example, learn features of their songs from other songs they hear. Over time, these features accumulate in a bird's repertoire, and even develop into a dialect for an area. See [LINK] Another example in birds is the behaviour of crows in Japan, who have learned to crack nuts by leaving them in traffic at intersections, waiting for the cross signal, then retrieving them.

Cites ymse · 2015-12 · on “Crows caught on camera making tools in the wild”

Here's a video (from Japan) about this phenomenon: [this video] I wonder whether it was discovered independently, or if it has been communicated somehow. Or maybe they've "always" done this, except with horses before cars.

Cites Someone · 2016-07 · on “When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)”

They're smarter nowadays; they place the nut on zebra crossings with traffic lights, and wait for the light to turn green (possible using 'pedestrians cross the road' as a clue) before hopping onto the road ( [this video] )

Cites nneonneo · 2016-09 · on “Scientists Have Found Another Species of Crow That Uses Tools”

Video, narrated by David Attenborough: [this video] The cleverest crows drop the nuts on the pedestrian crosswalk, so that there is a long safe duration to grab the cracked but.

Cites yareally · 2017-01 · on “Macaque monkeys have the anatomy for human speech, so why can’t they speak?”

> "Monkeys can be trained to do some pretty complex things in comparison to what a bird can do, it seems to me monkeys are smarter than birds." Crows are likely on par with chimps and dolphins for intelligence by creating their own tools in the wild and other intelligent behavior (language, facial recognition, passing on knowledge). Parrots such as African Greys and cockatoos are right up there too with problem solving abilities. I know cockatoos can be trained to "pick locks" and then pass on the knowledge to other cockatoos. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [this video] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]

Cites yareally · 2018-06 · on “Japan Fights Crowds of Crows (2008)”

Crows in Japan are definitely quite intelligent. They'll use traffic to crack open nuts by dropping them in front of traffic lights. After a car runs over them, they'll wait for the red light and then retrieve the now cracked open nut[1]. [1] [this video]

Cites chongli · 2019-11 · on “AI is mostly about curve fitting (2018)”

We know a great deal more about biological general intelligence than we do about AGI. Many animals create their own goals and work to achieve them. We learn what works and what does not, and adapt our strategies to compensate. Humans do this (obviously) but a lot of other intelligent animals can do it as well. One of my favourite examples is the New Caledonian crows who have learned to use traffic to crack nuts [1]. Here, a crow had no pre-defined objective function apart from "eat food to stay alive" and has accomplished something remarkable. It found a food source that it had never had access to before, it developed a complex model of its urban environment, it combined its knowledge of the

Cites Animats · 2022-03 · on “Crows possess higher intelligence, thought a primarily human attribute (2020)”

Crows have been seen using traffic to crack nuts. Including using a crosswalk to get a chance to retrieve the cracked nuts.[1] [1] [this video]