b.cognosco

Introduction to tool use in New Caledonian crows

New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are known to make and use complex tools in the wild (Hunt, 1996; 2000). We are investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of these natural tool using abilities in a colony of captive crows (the photo shows our first two subjects - 'Abel' and 'Betty' [on the left]; sadly, Abel died of old age in August 2002).

In the wild, the crows make a wide variety of tools from a number of different materials, and we have found that they will also readily do so in captivity, even with unfamiliar materials. They usually remove the leaves and side branches from twigs, and also make tools from other bits of material they find, such as their own moulted feathers (by removing the barbs), cardboard (by tearing it into strips), and leaves. They are even able to use techniques which would not work with natural materials to manufacture a tool for a particular task. We (Weir et al., 2002) found that Betty was able to bend a piece of wire to form a hook, which she then used to pull a bucket containing food from a vertical tube (see movie in panel on left; for more movies, see Photos and movies).